Anyone who has been the victim of car theft knows the stomac-churning feeling, which comes form the realisation that your car is no longer where you last left it - as you scan the roads in every direction, the country suddenly seems a lot bigger than it used to. Some bugger out there has your car, complete with that care care pack you got for Father's day and the Frampton Comes Alive CD that you have been thrashing for the last few months. It's guy-wrenching and it's happening to too many of us

- per capita, New Zealand has one of the highest rates of car theft in the world. It's an expereince that Blackahwk's Andrew Radcliffe knows all too well, Last year, his Subaru WRX was stolen and he was forced to rely on his flatmate, Andrew Sharp, to ferry him around. Determined to prevent it from happening again, the two Andrew's set about researching anti-theft devices to buy. Failing to find a product that was up to the task, Radcliffe, an engineer, set about building their own. The result is the Blackawk system, a clever device and service, which combined internet mapping, GSM technology and GPS tracking. It aslo includes GeoFencing, an invisible fence that is set around your vehicle; when a vehicle moves outside a perimeter or fence, Blackhawk will send a text message informing you that your car has been moved. And even if that car is on the move, you can track it's position to the nearest 25 metres using GPS tracking, which can be veiwed on www.blackhawktracking.com website or reported back to a nominated mobile phone. If your vehicle exceeds a pre-set limit, the technology will even alert you to its travelling speed. Just the thing for teenagers wanting to borrow dad's car.

Not only will the system report on a vehicle break-in, it is also designed to look after you when you are travelling inside your vehicle.  A panic button is installed and can be pressed when you are in trouble, with a text message automatically sent to nominated freinds and family alerting them and providing the vehicle's location - emergenies like when you wife is trying to replace your Frampton CD with her Dido CD.  Similary, if you are involved in an accident (at a force great enough to cause whiplash), freinds and family will be notified in the same way.

The company's vision is to be able to track anything thats moves,  In fact, Blackhawk has even been installed in a rocket to track it when it lands!  The two Andrew's are continuing to develop new technology, which includes the world's smallest device for motorcycles.  They are also defining new aspects of the Blackhawk business, which include and extend beyound security with the development of four four main areas: Fleet - large scale fleet tracking systems perfect for the freight industry; Finance - tracking for business assets; and of course, Personal - for putting a stop to those gut-wreanching moments. M2