Security & Theft Equipment Stolen

[Scooby074]

Sucks for sure. Definately sounds like a pro job. Maybe the same ones that hit you before.

What about some IR video cameras. Both visible and hidden?

 

[radioman]

Sheesh ! for the cost of the stolen equipment over the years, you would think with the available technology is cheap enough to buy and catch who did this. Remeber, you can't stop em, but catching them is more important.

 

[kebo]

For us its pretty complicated. Our store fills 25 acers, we have 1/4mi of highway frontage. At any given time there are probably at least 300 drive away machines sitting outside. Its not like we're talking a dozen lawn and garden tractors. We have tried a few things. Motion activated alarms, chained off areas, etc. Its effective for your petty thief, but these guys knew what they where doing.

sounds like your business could afford to hire an armed guard to work nights and weekends. If you add up the value of your lost equipment, hassle of insurance claims, and lost revenue from equipment you didn't sell because it's no longer in your inventory, it would probably justify the annual expense to keep a guard on duty. If nothing else, get one part time and put up signs that say, "Armed security guard works 4 days a week, you guess which days or nights"!

Hope they find the thieves and get your equipment back.

 

[zzvyb6]

Dealers should consider putting a few portable On-Star boxes in a few choice machines and set them up as bait. When they move, On-Star calls home and the trace begins using differential GPS. You even get live sound. My advice would be to have them notify you first and maybe not the police automatically. Your team might have a new and improved method for dealing with the perps. My personnal preference is an 18v Milwaukee drill with a 1/16" wire rope loop in the chuck. Set the drill on slow speed /max torque. If you don't get the other participant's names from their sign language, there probably weren't any others involved.

 

[stevem5215]

Stop in at Sam's club and check out the video surveillance systems. They even have DVR's there now. IR capable. Good color video quality even. Probably would run you about $1200 for one. It won't cover everything but it'll help deter them. And maybe even get them on video for id. And it'll reduce your costs of insurance if you have them.

Steve

 

[Motorcop]

I know Lo Jack is predominately for the end consumer, but we have recovered several pieces of stolen construction equipment over the years with those. Probably too expensive for a sales business to invest in but I know they work.

 

[two_bit_score]

I know Lo Jack is predominately for the end consumer, but we have recovered several pieces of stolen construction equipment over the years with those. Probably too expensive for a sales business to invest in but I know they work.

A few bait pieces with lojack or onstar might put a dent in it, for a while anyway.

 

[PAB_OH]

The idea of using lojack or similar devices is a good one for most scenarios. I work for a heavy equipment OEM and it's been tossed around for some time now as an option on our machines.

 

[chh]

I hope they get caught. Thieves are the lowest form of life on the planet. A former local Case-IH dealer lost a cab tractor off his lot hear a couple or three years ago. The thieves sat right on the street in broad daylight on a Sat. afternoon and loaded it on a gooseneck trailer. 1/2 a block from the local police station. Nobody really got a good description, because they waved at passer bys and acted like they where supposed to be there. Last I heard the tractor had never been located.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

Another dealer about 45 minutes from us got hit last weekend. 4 more Kubota's.

 

[J_J]

I believe that I would use light beams, laser beams across logical paths, to give alarm, or video, or bad dog release latch. Maybe sound canons. If they are starting them up and driving them on the trailers, then just disable the tractors. After that, human intervention. Next days news story, man found under tractor tire. It is assumed that the thief fell off the tractor while trying to steal it.

 

[MossRoad]

Another dealer about 45 minutes from us got hit last weekend. 4 more Kubota's.

Start checking Craig's list and e-bay. Surprisingly (or not, I suppose) criminals will put these things up for sale almost as soon as they get them. Where I work, we have professional photographers. Several times they have had their cars broken into and camera and computer equipment stolen and several times they found them for sale on e-bay within days. They got them back.

 

[EddieWalker]

There was an article in one of the Heavey Equipment magazines that I read about thieves steeling equipment off of jobsites. Some of them had a shopping list and were out looking for specific pieces of equipment, while others would just grab what they could and take it down to Mexico. Once across the boarder, it was gone forever. One guy in the article said that he had invoices for the different construction companies and that he'd fill out a repair order for a piece of equipment that he'd see on the job. He'd pull up in a truck with a lowboy trailer, give them the work order and load up the machine. In a week or two when it didn't come back to the job, they'd start calling around and realize that they had been robbed. With equipment coming and going every day off of these jobs, nobody suspects anything.

There have also been stories of equipment showing up on farms just a few miles away from where they wre stolen. Nobody can check what's going on out in the woods, so it's pretty easy to keep a stolen tractor hidden from view.

Since they are steeling multiple pieces of equipment and hitting different dealers, I'd think they are hauling them out of state to sell at an auction where they know that nobody will be checking serial numbers. I'd think that getting rid of them all at once and as quickly as possible would be the best way to go. Selling them locally online or some other form of advertising would only work if it was one tractor. With multiple units, it's too easy to get caught.

I'd also wonder about some other dealers who might be looking for a way to get inventory for half price and sell it for what they can get. Been hearing about that too, but not so much with farm stuff.

Sorry to hear about this, hope they find those responsible and are able to return your tractors.

Eddie

 

[Soundguy]

hope they find those responsible and ....

Hang them or execute them publically.

I'm all for that.

some potato sacks over their heads and then a fire squad.. might actually be a deterrant... could have it right outside the courthouse.. gavel bangs.. and then 10 miutes later.. so do several guns... people might be less apt to go help themselves to others property if justice did a lil something...

soundguy

 

[IslandTractor]

Hang them or execute them publically.

I'm all for that.

some potato sacks over their heads and then a fire squad.. might actually be a deterrant... could have it right outside the courthouse.. gavel bangs.. and then 10 miutes later.. so do several guns... people might be less apt to go help themselves to others property if justice did a lil something...

soundguy

Sounds like you'd be happy living in Saudi Arabia, North Korea or perhaps anyplace run by warlords.

On the otherhand, I'd be happy to apply your punishment to drunk drivers, dishonest mechanics, at least some developers, more lawyers and all financial scam artists so maybe I'll move with you.

 

[Soundguy]

Yep.. maddoff can stand next to the tractor thieves when they pull the triggers...

I'm not for senseless violence.. I am for crime deterrent though.. in some cases, sadly, the only deterrent is removal from society, permanently. remember.. the criminals have a choice.. they could -choose- to not be criminals... I'd feel differently if when you were born everyone was issued a random occupation 'card' you had to use, with no other choices or options, and some were 'criminals'.. that'd be a lil different... but that's not how it works..

I'll save you a seat on the boat!

soundguy

 

[jimmyj]

I wonder who buys all this stuff? There has to be demand for it. Very sorry to hear about another thefts - Grrr, danged theives.

I bet once the police catch one of the people involved they'll link a whole whack of illegal activities together. They'll get em.

 

[tommu56]

I always thought public stoning at $5.00 a stone money going to the victims was a good idea.

tom

 

[J_J]

Those tractors probably go in to a container and shipped overseas. The probably make up a bill of sale/invoice , and after that, everything is legal.

 

[sandman2234]

Another idea might be a shady owner of several pieces of equipment who knows a couple of theives, gives them a shopping list to pick up next time they are out on a Saturday night. They bring him the equipment, and he stores it in the back of his barn or in a shipping container until one of his "regular workers" breaks a part, burns up a motor, tears up a tranny, etc. Then he sends his mechanic/parts changer to the barn and they have an instant parts machine. Maybe a few parts are removed and sold on the 'net just to recoup some of the money he had to pay the thieves. A piece of equipment parted out is usually worth more than a running piece of stolen equipment.
Hope they catch them!
David from jax