Guardian Stolen Vehicle Recovery Device

Intelligent Real-Time GPS Tracking and Security

"It was parked right here."

After questioning yourself ("Could I be wrong?"), perhaps while wandering around the parking lot, that feeling of dread slowly begins to take hold. Your car's been stolen. What now?

The police have little to go on except a description of your car and its license plate number. If you really want your car back, it should contain a stolen vehicle recovery system before it joins the ranks of the 1.2 million vehicles stolen in the U.S. each year.

Vehicle recovery systems — a.k.a. vehicle tracking systems — are telematics systems that allow their owners to get their stolen vehicles back — often sooner than had they relied solely on the police, and with less damage. Because of this, insurance companies offer owners a discount on the comprehensive portion of their policies — often 10 percent or more.

Technology buyer John Haynes, who chooses vehicle recovery products for California's largest mobile electronics specialist, Al and Ed's Autosound, says that most of these systems are being marketed not just for recovering vehicles, but for the other features that will get more use, such as remote start, lock and unlock as well as GPS vehicle tracking. Another big draw? Tracking your teen driver.

"When my daughter was 18 years old and going to a concert with her friends in Anaheim, it was nice to get an e-mail on my phone that said, 'Ally arrived.' If I woke up at 2 in the morning and my son wasn't home yet, I could go to the computer and see where he was; I didn't have to call all over and wake people up," Haynes said.