I'm surprised these sorts of crimes don't happen more often. They probably do, but we just don't hear about them as much.<p>Trackers are cheap these days and even Mission Impossible style devices/bugs can be had that are just a little bigger than a car remote. Or if you're the DIY type, there are circuit and project boards with built in GPS chips or add-on modules available and you can buy plastic cases in standard sizes.
They're cheap and ubiquitous, no one is looking for them, and the data can be fed from an anonymous prepaid SIM to a virtual number (Google voice, for example).<p>Not surprised that this happened, surprised that the burglar was sophisticated enough to plan this but not sophisticated enough to recover it as well.
Of course the FBI wanted to do the same thing without warrants.<p><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/02/25/fbi-turns-off-thousands-of-gps-devices-after-supreme-court-ruling/" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/02/25/fbi-turns-off-thousan...</a>