A stolen van has been successfully recovered due to the fitment of a Simplytrak tracking device.

The vehicle was hired from Practical Car and Van Rental, in Oldham, and was stolen on Saturday December 1 while being used for delivery duties in the Blackburn area.

The driver, who was delivering parcels on behalf of Amazon, was dragged from the vehicle before the thieves drove away. He didn’t suffer any injury.

Immediately after receiving notification of the theft, Practical’s director Naz Akram called the Simplytrak customer helpline.

“Fortunately, the van was fitted with a tracker which has the functionality to immobilise the vehicle once the engine is turned off. So, I called Simplytrak to inform them of the incident.

“The Simplytrak team were excellent and they started tracking the van, so we knew where it was and then remotely immobilised the vehicle, so we were able to recover it,” explained Akram.

Immobilisation works by remotely sending a signal to the tracking device, which is wired up to the vehicle’s electrical supply, enabling users to cut the power to the engine to prevent the ignition from being turned on.

Upon recovery of the vehicle, Akram noticed that the interior light and roof lining had been ripped out. These are areas where some other models of vehicle trackers are often located.

Simplytrak’s business development manager Ian Wood, said: “Vehicle thieves are getting wiser and they know that tracking devices are becoming more popular, particularly in larger fleets.

“This is why our trackers are carefully concealed in a way that makes them difficult to locate so we never lose track of our customers’ assets, which is so important when immobilising and safely recovering vehicles.”

This incident came just days after a similar incident involving a vehicle from the Sheffield branch of the Practical franchise, which Simplytrak was also able to recover. 

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