Ok, this is the story. On friday night while i was working my car got stolen from west hollywood. I reported it to the local sheriff station around 3:30am came back home and 6:30am UCLA police called me and they told me that they have located my vehicle. I got there in 30 min and car was parked in UCLA's parking lot. I looked around the car, couple of things were missing but car was in good shape no accidents nor parts missing. Then I asked a cop how did they found it. because it was in a big parking lot, I said its immpossible to find it, he told me he found it with lowjack, he said at first signal was weak but when he got into UCLA signal became stronger and after like 10 min of driving around parking lot he found it. I was shocked that my 95 mb can have a lowjack. My question is, does 95merz can have a lowjack? Or cop was talking bull?

 

He was telling the truth. My 94 e320 has lojack in the trunk from the dealership. I was surprised and pleased to see it. It was cutting edge at the time (outside the military, they used it to recognize friend or foe) and cost quite a bit to have it installed. Congrats on the safe return of the car.

 

Is it free? Don't you have to have the service?

 

Once you pay for the unit it is activated only when needed by police. they basically send a signal to it which activates a homing beacon and it just "pings" until they find it with their cruisers reciever. The cost is for the initial purchase of the unit and installation. since it is not used unless needed there is no monthly charges or anything it just sits idle until you activate it. Police love it cause they get the bad guy fast.

 

But how did the police know to send a signal? Serial number data base?

 

The plates are linked to the vin # which is registered with the police reporting agencies. When they run the plate it pops up that it has lojack. They send the signal to that specific unit and just follow the beep so to speak. GM has on star which is even better cause it uses GPS and they can actually shut the car off and lock the doors when it is reported stolen and tell the police exactly where it is at real time. Tom Tom GPS units offer the same thing but you need to have it installed in the dash or the thief will just throw the unit out the window if they are smart.

 

Look in your trunk on the tool kit side of the trunk under the carpet on the inside wall. that is where my unit is. It has about 3 wires coming out of it and an antena. You may have one. Benz dealerships where huge into Lojack because it was an easy upsell and they made good money on them.