How Lori Used Life360 to Catch a Car Thief

Our users at Life360 often share stories of how they’re using the app – whether it’s about how they are staying connected with their families or have ease-of-mind from monitoring new teenage drivers. The stories of gratitude we receive on a daily basis keeps us working hard to constantly improve our app. We recently connected with one of our users, Lori, who offered to share her own exciting story about how Life360 helped find her stolen car.

It was 4:42 pm on the day before Thanksgiving – Lori had just finished running a personal errand and was headed back to help with the remaining flower deliveries at her flower shop in Newport, NY. Lori called ahead to make sure the deliveries were prepared and left on the back counter for her to quickly run in and pick up. Lori had owned the flower shop for 31 years and business always got extra busy around the holiday season.

Spotting a nearby parking spot on the very busy street, she pulled in and left the car running while she ran into the shop to pick up the orders. When she came back out, her van was gone. Living in a small town, Lori thought it might have been a prank and quickly scanned the nearby street and parking lots. With no luck, panic began to set in as she realized her purse, phone, prescriptions, food for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas gifts were all in the van.

“My employee reminded me that I had Life360 on my phone and my husband checked his phone and left to follow the van (at a safe distance of course)! I was on the phone reporting the theft to 911 and told them what was happening,” Lori said.

Using Life360 on his phone, Lori’s husband was able to keep 911 informed of the direction of travel of the stolen van in real time.

Lori also called her daughter, Katherine, to let her know what was happening and to ask her to check Life360 to get an update on the van’s location. “Oh, it’s going fast mom. Ohhh, I see Dad behind it following!” exclaimed Katherine.

Less than twelve minutes after parking the van on the street, the thief crashed the van on a sharp curve into a large bank of snow, hitting road signs and a power pole. When Lori later reviewed the Life360 driving report, she saw the driver was going 87 miles an hour and they hit the brakes hard as they were heading into the sharp turn, causing them to crash. The time recorded on Life360 was 4:55. Her husband stayed a distance from the car until the police arrived and were able to pull the thief from the vehicle.

When Lori received her phone and other personal items recovered from the “totaled” van, the phone pop up message greeted her with a message from Life360, saying that it appeared that there might have been an accident and offering to help.

Despite the ordeal, it was extremely reassuring to see that the app had worked as advertised,” said Lori.

Lori’s story is just one example of the incredible ways Life360 has come to the rescue for our members. Thank you to Lori and her entire family for letting us share your story. We’re so thankful we could be there for you.