Thieves go for heavy spoils Difficult-to-trace construction machinery a hot commodity
Published in: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)
Date: 3/6/2006
By: Tony Gordon
They are hauled away in the middle of the night, highly desired because of their high cost and power.
Thieves shop for them with a detailed list of specifications, often with a specific buyer in mind and always aware a good model will sell in today’s market.
High-horsepower sports cars and luxury sport utility vehicles remain the items of choice for thieves, but there is a thriving market for stolen construction equipment in Lake County and throughout the country.
Lake County Sheriff’s Sgt. Curtis Gregory spearheaded investigations in the past two years that led to the recovery of more than $1.4 million worth of stolen skid loaders, excavators and trailers.
“Heavy equipment theft is a fast-growing crime because there are so many advantages for the thieves” Gregory said. “The equipment is usually sitting out in the open, it can be hitched to a truck and pulled away in seconds, and it is very hard to trace.”
Five people were arrested as a result of Gregory’s investigations. Three are on probation and another is awaiting trial.
The fifth, Dennis Kehl, of Round Lake Beach, was sentenced in December to 19 years in prison for stealing a skid loader and trailer.
Tipped by an informant, police were watching Jan. 28, 2005, when Kehl drove a pickup truck into a field in McHenry County and hitched it to a trailer carrying a skid loader.
Police arrested the people who bought the machine the next day, but continued their investigation of Kehl.
On Feb. 5, police say, they followed Kehl into a Wauconda subdivision and watched as he hitched to his truck another trailer carrying a skid loader and drove it away.
They followed him to a construction lot in Wheeling, where Gregory said a stolen tractor and three stolen trailers were recovered.
“Dennis Kehl was particularly brazen,” Gregory said. “I was getting two to three reports of equipment theft a month for the year before he was arrested. But once he was taken into custody, reports dropped down to a trickle.”
The National Insurance Crime Bureau estimates heavy-equipment theft has increased as much as 20 percent every year since 1996, and total losses topped $1 billion in each of the past two years.
Once gone, the equipment tends to stay gone, because only 10 percent to 15 percent of stolen heavy equipment is recovered. That compares with a stolen auto recovery rate of around 62 percent.
Just as auto thieves have favorite models, skid loaders are the most often snatched heavy equipment because of their versatility and relatively low cost. Backhoes, loaders, excavators and bulldozers are other popular targets.
Dealers say the price of a new skid loader starts around $25,000 and can rise to twice that amount with attachments; a bulldozer can command more than $150,000 straight out of the factory.
Gregory said the market for stolen heavy equipment is driven by a variety of forces. Owners of small firms often operate on shoestring budgets and are drawn to the lower prices a thief can offer. Larger companies will buy used equipment as a source for parts for their legitimately purchased machinery. The difficulties in identifying stolen equipment reduce the risk of being caught.
Some stolen machinery is sold through ads placed in trade magazines, but the majority changes hand via word-of-mouth connections in the contractor grapevine, he said.
Gregory said he knows the equipment better than most police officers because of his background as an owner and operator of a gravel truck before getting into law enforcement.
And knowing what you are looking for is key, because unlike automobiles and trucks, heavy equipment is not titled or licensed and can be extremely difficult to trace.
Gregory said heavy equipment comes with a Product Identification Number that can be used to trace lost equipment. However, heavy equipment owners frequently do not maintain complete records.
NICB spokesman Frank Scafidi said his organization encourages owners of heavy equipment to keep detailed records of all identification numbers on their property and to have the records available for police reports.
Scafidi said there is discussion among the players in the industry – manufacturers, insurers and police – about developing a more complex identification number system for heavy equipment, along the lines of the Vehicle Identification Number used for cars and trucks.
“A completely universal system, such as the VIN, would be the goal because VINs have many codes within them that make vehicles much easier to track,” he said. “As long as there is a dialogue going on, there is progress.”
Equipment manufacturers and the New York-based National Equipment Register maintain databases they open to police seeking to check the ownership of equipment.
Gregory said there are several steps that can be taken to prevent equipment theft.
Several after-market items are available that can be used to immobilize heavy equipment, and many owners install Lojack radio tracking devices on their machinery.
Gregory said the sheriff’s department, along with many other departments, educate their patrol officers about what to look for in equipment-hauling scenarios as they are driving down the road.
“The best thing an owner can do for us is to paint the name of his company somewhere on the machine,” he said. “That way, if I see a truck from Jones Construction hauling a loader from Smith Excavating, I see a reason to start asking questions.”
Owners of equipment should also know the people who work for them, Gregory advises.
“The same people who are stealing equipment at night are running them during the day,” he said.
“They know how it works, where it is at and who wants what they have.”
COPYRIGHT 2006 Paddock Publications