GPS Tracker Inside 'Robot' Lawn Mower Leads Cops To Equipment Thieves

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas Police arrested two accused thieves and detectives are thanking something that is not even human for helping them in the case.

Investigators arrested Stephen Cress and Maria Izaguirre after police said a lawn mower the two are accused of stealing helped lead to their whereabouts.

"I think they'd probably feel pretty stupid because honestly, they thought it was just a piece of lawn equipment," said Colin Miller, general manager of Robin Autopilot.

Miller said he recently received an alert on his phone that one of his robot lawn mowers had taken off from the yard it is assigned to service.

"It's not going to just drive down the street and run away," said Miller. "I pulled it up on the tracking device and saw that it went on an adventure kind of all over the neighborhood."

Miller said there was no way the robot was out traveling on its own.

"It was in the 30, 40 miles an hour (range) compared to the few miles an hour the robot actually mows your lawn at," said Miller. They're smart, but they're not that smart."

Miller realized someone had taken the robot.

Using the robot's GPS tracker, Miller watched as the robot weaved through Lower Greenville, East Dallas and Knox Henderson.

"It definitely made me feel like a bit of a detective," said Miller.

He caught up with the robot, called DPD and let the professionals rescue the lawn-mowing gadget.

Police said after locating Cress and Izaguirre, they found other stolen property belonging to other people.

"They definitely appreciated the GPS because without that, they really would have had nothing to go on and it would have just been left at a police report," said Miller.

The robot is not back in service, but not before Miller could hand down a little reward for the its hard work.

"The robot definitely got a few days off. We brought it into the office, cleaned it up, made sure everything was working on it. So it got a nice little vacation from doing its job," said Miller.

The suspects were each charged with theft.