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52 Posts
I was graced with a few brave thieves last month(2-8-10). They broke into our shop by prying the center of our 12'x14' shop door out just enough to slide under, cut the lock off the slide that goes into the roller track and up went the door. They proceded to load up an F350 dump truck and 16ft expanded metal trailer with approximately 30k worth of equipment and about 70k with truck and all. They drove the truck and trailer out and rammed my chain-link gate on the fence that surrounds the shop, jumped on the interstate, and drove off @ about 7:30 AM. It was snowing that morning so I wasn't at the shop then. I realized what had happened around 10 AM called the police and filed a report.
Here's the kicker... All my trucks have GPS tracking on them. I got on my computer and told the police exactly where the truck was located. It took them 2 hours to finally get to the truck and tell me it was abandoned in an apartment complex without trailer and a smashed front end. I checked the route they took again and noticed they stopped at a house 3 miles away for 20 minutes before dumping the truck. I told the cops exactly where the house was and they came back to tell me there was nothing there. I went to the house myself and found tracks from my truck/trailer turning around in the yard and some of my equipment. Apparently they transfered the trailer to another truck at this house. By that evening I figured all I was going to get back was probably the truck. I received a call two days later from the police department telling me they found my trailer sitting in a driveway 10 miles from where the truck was dumped with half of the equipment still on it. This was not enough to get a search warrant to check in the guys garage for the rest or even give him a slap on the hand. I paid $150 impound to get my dang trailer back. That's the short story.
As of March 1st, I've recovered a little over half of my equipment but I'm still missing ~13k worth. The most expensive being a Ferris is1500z 48" riding mower. I figured I'd post the model and serial on here just for giggles. Stolen in Oklahoma City.
Ferris is1500z
Model: 5900606
Serial: 2012697617
Moral of the story. Secure your equipment to the extreme, don't depend on anyone else to recover your equipment, and equipment insurance is imperative.
Here's the kicker... All my trucks have GPS tracking on them. I got on my computer and told the police exactly where the truck was located. It took them 2 hours to finally get to the truck and tell me it was abandoned in an apartment complex without trailer and a smashed front end. I checked the route they took again and noticed they stopped at a house 3 miles away for 20 minutes before dumping the truck. I told the cops exactly where the house was and they came back to tell me there was nothing there. I went to the house myself and found tracks from my truck/trailer turning around in the yard and some of my equipment. Apparently they transfered the trailer to another truck at this house. By that evening I figured all I was going to get back was probably the truck. I received a call two days later from the police department telling me they found my trailer sitting in a driveway 10 miles from where the truck was dumped with half of the equipment still on it. This was not enough to get a search warrant to check in the guys garage for the rest or even give him a slap on the hand. I paid $150 impound to get my dang trailer back. That's the short story.
As of March 1st, I've recovered a little over half of my equipment but I'm still missing ~13k worth. The most expensive being a Ferris is1500z 48" riding mower. I figured I'd post the model and serial on here just for giggles. Stolen in Oklahoma City.
Ferris is1500z
Model: 5900606
Serial: 2012697617
Moral of the story. Secure your equipment to the extreme, don't depend on anyone else to recover your equipment, and equipment insurance is imperative.
