"Secreted Technology"---?? Cough Syrup With GPS Tracker Helps Cops Nab Pharmacy Burglars

a reply to: corblimeyguvnor

I would imagine that they put it on the shelf after close, then it was taken and tracked, this is a main component in the processing of street drugs.

originally posted by: corblimeyguvnor
a reply to: seasonal

How did it know it was stolen? How did the Police know which bottle to track? I mean, cough medicine is not a high value item is it.

Do we now have to keep receipts for everything in case we get a knock at the door a couple of weeks down the line?

If it is GPS with a battery i can't see how the device could be turned off at the checkout during the scanning process.

GPS on cough medicine? the tracking device would surely cost more than the item, was this a sting operation?

It's a device that can be hidden inside a pill bottle or small box. It's got an accelerometer in. It has to be charged every couple of weeks. Everyone behind the counter knows which one it is. They don't sell it. It's just there as a decoy.

When the hapless thief takes the device, the motion triggers the tracker. As I said, it's a GSM phone module with a battery. It immediately sends out a text message to whatever phones it's set up to contact, and for several hours, you can pull it up on a tracking app that will show you where it is.

originally posted by: jellyrev
It's all part of the future, an internet of things. more and more products are getting chipped to maintain inventory and to watch how individual products go through the chain to the consumer.

This has nothing to do with product tracking RFID.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: seasonal

Seasonal...

I really think that it might be a bit of a reach to go from "secrete" meaning to conceal as Bedlam mentioned, to "secretions", issue of pores, membranes, and the like.

I am no longer surprised at what they can do with GPS and or DNA technology today.

If you want a head exploding wake up call, do a little research on the new mobile DNA radar.

We don't have to worry about going down the rabbit hole any more. The rabbit hole has come to us.

originally posted by: NightSkyeB4Dawn
new mobile DNA radar...

Citation needed

How many people here speculated on the device without reading the article?

raise your hands, please...

Concealed inside the bottle of cough syrup was a GPS device that began tracking the medicine thieves’ every move, according to police investigators.

Tustin police spokesman Lt. Robert Wright said investigators decided to drop the small piece of technology into a bottle of cough syrup after a half-dozen pharmacy burglaries this year.

As for the 'secrete' portion of this post... it's from the supposed official statement. Typo? Mis-use of word? It's the only mention of that word in the entire article.

I've looked around for the official statement without luck, but several other 'news' websites cover this same story without that statement.

“The technology allows us to secrete the system in a variety of items and is only limited by our imagination,” the Police Department said in a statement.

There are a number of different ones, Geo F2 is real popular, and there's a few that Qualcomm makes.

eta: the decoy bottles generally don't have any product in them at all. Just the tracker. Pfizer sells pre-made decoys that look like the real thing, even sound like pills inside when you shake them,but it's just plastic beads.

a reply to: seasonal

I think they mean secret-ed, not secrete-d



From your source:

"It wasn’t until the nondescript package was removed from the small Newport Avenue business by burglars that its secret ingredients went to work. "

If I where to guess that bottle is not to make any drug the shugar dye and other things in it make such effort not worth it

I'd bet it was opiate based as for the GPS tracker the artical says in the bottle so probly waterproof

Most the time when pharmacys are robed it's for opiates why bother for ingrediance people steal or get paied to buy so they can't be traced

If thats a codine bottle its value is really high on the street normaly given after oral surgery