Insurance Theft

[angustrees]

I'd appreciate it if TractorByNet members would be on the look out for my Bobcat 341 Excavator (2002) Serial # 233212198 w/hydraulic thumb and 13" Bucket. It was taken/stolen weekend Oct. 22-23, 2011. Has fresh filter/oil change 10/5/11 at 1857 hrs.--marked on filter.

Thieves must have had own rolloff or trailer as my two trailers were not touched. We are remote, so they were intentional!

Word of warning: Make sure you have pictures of each your equipment items along with Serial number plates.

Detective Hodges of the Sevier (Co., TN) Sheriff's Office has placed it on the NER listing......... http://www.ner.net/theft_alerts/NERALERT_TNBOBCAT102311.pdf

Pictures at ner site. Thanks

 

[SSdoxie]

Have you also contacted Bobcat dealer so they can report it to Bobcat and get it on their stolen equipment list? When Bobcat gets the report of stolen it gets lsited in their data base so any dealer that tries to look up service history or connects their computer to that machine will get notice it is stolen.

 

[creekbend]

Good Luck and wishing for a speedy recovery. Does Sevier County have a gang related division? In recent years, there has been an increase in gang related thefts. These gangs are well organized and have sufficient funds available to transport equipment out of the Country. Good luck. BTW, I was raised in Hawkins County, Tenn.

 

[sparc]

Interesting site but I have to pay to find out if the equipment I want to buy is stolen?

That part of the service should be free, owners should pay to register their equipment if they choose to. Or maybe a tiered service with basic registration free and additional services provided for a one-time or low annual fee.

Or do like CarFax and have limited time subscriptions for a week, month, etc. That way someone shopping for equipment could do unlimited lookups for x number of days/weeks/months.

I hope you are able to recover your mini. Unfortunately those things fit nicely inside a box trailer or shipping container so it could be anywhere by now.

I've heard these thefts are many times scheduled so they can be shipped out of the country quickly, usually going to Central or South America and other remote locations which are somewhat 'off the grid' as it is harder to track them down there and no one there cares anyway.

For high dollar equipment the GPS trackers make sense. Unless they are located on the equipment and deactivated quickly they can give an idea of the direction the culprits headed off in and a clue to where they might be headed. Also, using various cameras that might be along the route taken time-indexed to the GPS track might yield an image of the get away vehicle.

It can also be helpful to stash some identifying information in a hidden location that is not obvious or easily reached and to scribe ID numbers on various parts which are easily removed and sold separately like buckets, hammers and other attachments. Take a business card and stuff it in a spot or two where no one would think to look. This can help when the ID plates have been removed or the serial number obliterated. I had a friend who got his Harley back because he had his business card hidden on the bike and gave that location to police when it was stolen.