Sevierville police announced today that an arrest had been made yesterday of a man suspected of 41 separate burglaries of local cabins. The prime target in these crimes were the popular flat panel big screen television sets that are in such demand in rental properties. Unfortunately these TV sets are also very easy for a criminal to convert into cash making cabins that have them very much at risk of being broken into. While some rental agencies have advised owners to remove flat screen televisions from their properties to decrease the risk of a break-in, one owner took a much wiser approach.

The thief was captured and the crime spree halted because at least one owner of a stolen plasma display television had hidden a small GPS/Cellular transmitter inside the set which began transmitting a location signal as soon as the TV was removed from the owner’s rental cabin. Using a website provided by the device manufacturer the owner was able to provide the exact address of the television set which was returned to the owner after police staked out the location and arrested the occupant.

After doing a little research these devices are extremely affordable and make a tremendous amount of sense for all sorts of crime and unauthorized use prevention efforts. Although I’m not sure of exactly what brand of device was used here is a link to a company that makes a very similar device which has been effective in solving a similar crime recently. These GPS transmitters are well worth considering as our world becomes less law abiding, even here in the relatively low crime rate Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee.