Smart pallet knows when it's being stolen

I've heard of police finding stolen cars thanks to global positioning technology. But how about stolen plastic pallets? That's the off-beat story today from iGPS Co. LLC, a company that rents plastic pallets with embedded radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. According to iGPS, the tags helped law enforcement officials fine a cache of several hundred plastic pallets that "had been misappropriated" by a pallet recycler in Perrysburg, Ohio. "Unfortunately, this is not an isolated occurrence -- we have experienced similar issues in other states," said Al Farrell, VP of Asset Management at iGPS. "Just this past December, our technology led law enforcement officials to raid a large California-based pallet theft ring." I suppose eventually thieves will catch on, like the bank robbers that toss out exploding dye packs before they flee the scene. Can you imagine a robber stealing valuable goods from your warehouse and stopping to discard the pallets?