Stolen inReach

Stromdiddily over 5 years ago

Had my Garmin stolen out of my car last night. Anyone know if support can track down?

In the meantime, have an email out to support.

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Garmin-Heath over 5 years ago in reply to Stromdiddily +1 verified

Stromdiddily, I think that was a miss understanding on the Support side.

The first then you want to do is to reach out to your local Authorities and see if they want to use the locate feature option…

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0 twolpert over 5 years ago

If the thief begins tracking or sends a message, you’ll be able to see the location yourself. I think that’s unlikely, though. The thief probably has no idea what it is. You can also request the location from your account page. But this is only effective if the device is powered up with a good sky view. The system will continue to request the location for a while, but not indefinitely.

As long as the device is registered to your account, it cannot be re-registered. That is, the thief cannot create a new account and register the device to it. Factory reset and reactivation will just reactivate it on your account.

A call to support is the right idea. I assume, it do not actually know, that they have a way of black-listing the IMEI so it can never be registered. They will also be able to assist in avoiding future charges against your account.

Please post back to let us know what support suggests.

0 Stromdiddily over 5 years ago in reply to twolpert

Well, response from support is that there is not much they can do unless the people that took it turn it on. Based on the rest of the stuff they took (gym bag, energy gels, squirrels nut butter) there's a very low chance they have any idea what they have.

I'm now torn between leaving the subscription active in order to send a message to the device vs passively monitoring the in reach site to see if they happen to turn tracking on.

I don't see anywhere on the web account where I can request the location? That something you can really do?

0 twolpert over 5 years ago in reply to Stromdiddily

Yes. On the Map tab, look for your name in the left sidebar. At the right end of the bar containing your name, you will see a "message options" icon (speech balloon with a few lines in it) which appears dimmed. Click there and a new bar will open up with options to start tracking, locate, send a message and send a location.

In your situation, any of the first three options might be useful. But remember that none of this works unless the device is on and has a clear view of the sky. When you request a locate, it does say that the request will be retried for 5 days - but I would imagine that the retry frequency drops off as time goes on. After 5 days, you can post a new one.

What did they say about blacklisting the IMEI? It would be nice to know that the thief can't possibly ever use the device.

0 Stromdiddily over 5 years ago in reply to twolpert

Suggested that I suspend my subscription. As long as the IMEI is associated with my account it cannot be used by anyone else. Would also allow for me to set up a new one with no activation fee if I so choose.

+1 Garmin-Heath over 5 years ago in reply to Stromdiddily

Stromdiddily, I think that was a miss understanding on the Support side.

The first then you want to do is to reach out to your local Authorities and see if they want to use the locate feature option to see if they can find your device for you.

After that, if you are going to replace the inReach device, then do so before going to the next step since this will allow you to move over your current subscription to the new device without paying for a new activation.

The last thing you need to do is to call and talk directly to Garmin's inReach Billing team. They would want to talk to you directly about moving over your subscription and/or also get your device marked as stolen so it can't be used again in the future.

If you have any questions about this, feel free to reach out to me directly via private message.