Builder Uses GPS Tracker To Help Police Solve Construction Site Thefts

A Chesterfield Township man faces breaking-and-entering charges after a home builder planted a GPS tracking device on a Rochester Hills construction site.

The builder planted the device in a box of building materials and alerted police when the device started moving early Friday morning.

Later that day, the device led to two suspects—one from Chesterfield and another from Hamtramck—who are now accused of several thefts from home construction sites in Rochester Hills and Troy.

According to a report from the sheriff's office, the builder left the GPS device in a box of materials at a house on Monterey Lane, off Livernois south of Auburn in Rochester Hills.

At 6:20 a.m. Friday, the builder received an alert that the tracker was on the move; he used a computer to follow its route south to Detroit and alerted sheriff's deputies, who followed along.

Deputies followed the tracker to a Coney Island near I-75 and McNichols Road in Detroit, where they witnessed three men transfering items from one vehicle to another, according to the report. Deputies arrested all three men, and the builder, who was with them, identified items stolen from two of his houses.

John Flenna, 40, of Chesterfield Township, and Gary Polisano, 55, of Hamtramck, were arraigned Saturday on two counts of breaking and entering, which is a 10-year felony. The third man was released.

A search of the vehicles uncovered construction materials that had been stolen from two homes on Monterey Lane and one on Amberwood Street in Troy, the report stated.

Both Flenna and Polisano have extensive criminal records, according to sheriff's detective Ray White. Flenna has convictions for uttering and publishing counterfeit bills, retail fraud, reckless driving, operating a vehicle under the influence of a controlled substance and failure to pay child support.
Polisano’s convictions include possession of controlled substances, retail fraud, malicious destruction of property and fleeing police.