Thief catcher via GPS

It goes like this: Police departments would have on hand plenty of these catch-a-thief two-way GPS gizmos. They are built small and compact. They are activated with motion-control sensors. Fancier units have the ability to broadcast the sounds around them over a radio frequency.

A citizen is disgusted with something valuable always getting stolen from his yard. He has no idea who is taking it and he is tired of replacing the thing.

He calls the cops, They come by and install this gizmo deep inside the valuable object. They turn it on and leave.

Along comes thief. Thief grabs the valuable object. Motion sensor is activated and the unit silently calls the cops. The unit broadcasts to the cops the GPS coodinates of where the thief is going. Cops nab thief.

The unit could be easily manufactured to look like a very good car stereo. Think about the implications of THAT...

In a neighborhood which is experiencing a rash of burglaries, citizens could volunteer their help by taking in units disguised as stereos or VCRs. Put it in the garage. Let the burglar steal that, and hopefully leave their real one alone. They get their stuff back after the burglar is tracked, and the volunteer is thanked for helping reduce crime, reducing your average burglary from truly horrid to merely seriously annoying. :)