hey everyone...
my boyfriend's Portable GPS Navigation (a Mio c520) was stolen out of his car last night... I hope this isn't a dumb question but is there anyway to track it down? The GPS is worth about $400, but what he's really upset about is all the information he's stored in it with the SD card that well, we just can't get back...
any help or information would be much appreciated!! and if it's a lost cause.. hey, at least I asked....

 

LOL at your post title.
Sorry for laughing, that just tickled my dry sense of humor.
You'd think they'd be able to track it as long as it's on, right? I'm sure each GPS has a code # or something - that's how the satellite knows where you are...

 

Call the manufacturer ?

 

If it were a phone with a gps tracking chip- thats one thing- they can track a lost child or stolen phone.

The GPS units get navigation/receive signals from a few satellites and triangulate your postion based on the relative position of those sats, not the other way round.
The sat does not follow you and watch your every move...no secret card inside,
well, not for most of us

 

What ^ he said. This is a common misconception about GPS that it can be tracked. Like the above poster said a gps is just a receiver that receives signals from orbiting satellites and the GPS triangulates it positions based on the time it takes for signals to make it from satellite to gps receiver. There is NO transmission capability back for others to location your signal unless it's coupled to a cell phone or specialized transmitter for this purpose (sometimes you'll see these on commercial trucks and it will look like an upside down bowl on it's roof).

That's the problem with those portable gps's. If you don't take them down every time you park in public they are an attractive target for thieves. One of my co-workers just got his jacked from his car last week as well. He bought a new one already and got a different model that is sized for an opening in his dash. He's going to hard mount it so it looks like part of the car so he doesn't have to take it down and mess with wires every time he parks his car.

 

what a bummer...

Well thanks for the input guys. I did register the Mio this morning in case that loser-thief decides to call into customer service for an inquiry... but I can't say the customer service rep was very helpful. He told me he couldn't even red-flag it if someone else called in with the exact SN number !!

yeah...um... that helps.

 

The reality is that although the functionality may be there, nobody is going to do it. It would cost a heck of alot more then $400 to track it.

Sorry.

BTW I have experience in this...so I am not talking out of my elbow

 

The alternative on next purchase is a cell phone with gps feature-
THAT you can track all the time and use it as a gps even!

Never put all your data in 1 place-(been there, lost all that -with early PDA)

let me guess- dont back up your computer either??

 

Don't feel bad, my GPS was stolen at 3 in the morning, out of my truck, not my TL, but I was still pissed, and the worst part, it happened 15 minutes after I went to sleep, I was pissed, it was also a Mio C310X...low-life bastards....

 

Since this is not related to the 3G TL, please continue the discussion in Off Topic. Thank you.