Boston Marathon Bomber's Deadly Mistake: He Took A Mercedes
Daimler is set to profit from theBoston Marathon bombing drama in a strange way. The car hijacked by Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a 2013 ML350 with an active telematics subscription. Mercedes-Benz USA confirmed to Automotive News [sub] that “it was contacted April 19 during the hunt for Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Mercedes was asked to help find the vehicle using the Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance function on the crossover’s mbrace telematics system.“
Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Steve Cannon could tweet: “Just found out that our mbrace2 technology in the stolen Mercedes helped locate the Boston terrorists! Thanks to our amazing law enforcement.”
The Mercedes is owned by a 26-year-old Chinese entrepreneur, who told the harrowing story of his abduction and escape to the Boston Globe.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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The stories I followed claimed that the cops found the car by locating the owner's mobile phone which was left in the car.
+1 I get my news from the Daily Mail and the owner was quoted saying that he left his iPhone under the seat and notified police -- and his belief was the iPhone. Find my iPhone App works in a few seconds. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2315706/Boston-bombings-Car-jacking-victim-left-iPhone-car-police-track-Tamerlan-Dzhokhar-Tsarnaev.html
Good thing it wasn't a GM vehicle with OnStar location services. GM would have been assailed.
Great example of why I like new media so much more than old. Auto News broke this but the story is buried on their home page under the boring headline "M-B tech led cops to Boston suspects' car". The TTAC headline is more tantalizing, less stiff, and there is always a visual "appetizer" to go with the words. TTAC gives you a link to the Globe article which provided so much more to the story. Finally there are 20 so comments here and when I went back to AN to see how many they had (usually very few) I was told I needed a subscription!