Sooo, d'ja hear about the guy who swiped the Ex?

[Diggin It]

And swiped the bucket at the cops?

California Man in Stolen Excavator Swings Bucket at Police Officers

According to the Madera Police Department in Madera, California, the incident occurred on Wednesday when officers received reports of theft in the area of Tozer St. and Ave. 14.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Jstpssng]

It happens. One contractor here had a bulldozer stolen. Luckily they are experienced trackers so that it didn't take long to recover the machine. The guy had driven it about 3 miles, right across a 4 lane highway.
Another of our contractors once had a skidder stolen. They looked for months including from the air but were unable to find it. Some hunters stumbled across it that fall, backed up under some dense trees.

 

[Wakey]

Florida man has competition..

 

[Dftodd]

Heavy equipment theft in Florida is extremely common. With the state being surrounded by water and access to the coast within an hour.....

Nobody questions equipment haulers on active construction sites. With equipment being moved quite frequently, it's common place.

How many times have you drove past a construction site, seen a low boy with lights flashing and a piece of equipment getting loaded up and gave it a second thought?? Even after hours???

Crooks can have a $500k piece of equipment loaded up on a low boy, chained down, and moved to some rarely used fishing access within an hour or so, load it up on a barge and headed out to sea.

It's extremely easy to disable a GPS tracker. Not to mention that they usually only ping periodically when the engine is running........ so if the GPS is disconnected before leaving a jobsite, or the piece of equipment was winched onto a trailer without being started, the telemetry won't be updated.