Thieves placed an electronic tracking device on a vehicle parked at the home of an Eden Prairie couple, waited until the coast was clear and stole a safe holding at least $500,000 worth of jewels and a stash of cash, according to police.
Eden Prairie police: GPS device tells thieves coast is clear to steal up to $700K in jewels and cash
The device was on the vehicle of the homeowners, who were out having lunch while their garage was burglarized, according to police.
September 8, 2023 at 1:37PM
The Aug. 25 theft from the couple, who are in the jewelry business, was possibly months in the making and has investigators on the hunt for the perpetrators and the stolen items, police said Wednesday.
Although court records point to at least one possible suspect by name, "we have not made any arrests," police spokeswoman Kari Knoll said. "The case is still active and under investigation."
Here's how the heist went down, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Hennepin County District Court that asks permission to access the email and phone data of the possible suspect:
The husband and wife, whose names are not included in the court filing, called police to report that a safe was missing from their attached garage, and that it contained $500,000 to $600,000 in jewels related to their business and $100,000 in cash.
They said they left their home near Hwy. 5 and Dell Road about noon in their minivan for lunch at a restaurant about a 15-minute drive away in Edina's 50th and France retail district.
When they left the restaurant, the couple saw they had a flat tire and hired an Uber driver for a ride home. They arrived to see their home had been burglarized.
A neighbor's security video recorded two people pull into the drive at the couple's residence while they were away and crawl under an SUV outside the home. The filing did not include why the pair was underneath the SUV, which was the victims' other vehicle.
A police officer inspected the minivan at a tire store and saw that a rear tire had been slashed. The officer also located a magnetic GPS tracking device on the frame near the rear of the vehicle. The device, which requires a monthly subscription for monitoring purposes, had two email accounts associated with it as well as a phone number with a New York City area code.
In Minnesota, as in some other states, the law for the most part prohibits an individual from using a mobile tracking device without court authorization.
Information provided to investigators for the Land Sea Air Model 54 device revealed that the suspects in the burglary bought several of the trackers and began using them on April 5, leading police to believe that planning for the break-in could have started months ago.
A popular consumer website for automobile enthusiasts, motor1.com, reviewed this specific device and praised it for its compact design, ease in setting up and the creation of real-time tracking data.
The device's "tracking system was very accurate," the review continued, "tracking our vehicle's location with 60-second intervals. The map, which looked remarkably like Google Maps' live view, let us view the precise whereabouts of the tracker."
