Heavy Equipment Thefts On The Rise

Thursday, August 30th 2007, 7:46 pm

By: News On 6

Itâ€™s a growing crime epidemic, the theft of heavy equipment from construction sites. Itâ€™s a billion dollar a year industry thatâ€™s grown so bad in Green Country that many companies are taking extreme measures to protect their investments. News On 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright reports one company takes time each night to turn off the master switches and circle the wagons if you will, with the easiest to steal items in the middle.

Larry Creekmore is with Cherokee Builders, a company that's worked on many big projects, including the Creek and Cherokee casinos and the downtown arena. And every single month they deal with someone stealing their equipment.

"It's a huge problem," said Larry Creekmore of Cherokee Builders.

Once the equipment is gone you almost never get it back. The insurance industry estimates less than 10% of stolen equipment is returned, and even when companies take safety measures it doesn't guarantee results.

"A lot of our sites, even if they're fenced, they're still not secure,â€ Creekmore said. â€œPeople just drive through the gates and take equipment, just make a run on it."

Part of the problem is some companies don't even report the theft to police; they just turn it in on insurance. With no tags or titles, there's no easy or reliable way to find out who owns the equipment when it's sold or located. Another problem is there's no standard way of identifying the heavy equipment. Some have eight digit numbers, others have 18; it's on the right in some, on the left in others. There is now a standard 12-digit identification number, but some manufacturers aren't using it yet.

Tulsa's property recovery officer, Jim McClaughry, recently went through training with the National Equipment Registry. They keep track of heavy equipment. Officer McClaughry recently spent an hour trying law enforcement channels to locate the owner of a stolen front-end loader, but had no luck. One call to NER and he had the owner's name in minutes and returned it to the man before he even reported it stolen.

Police say a lot of the equipment is ending up in other countries, like China. Others just list it online at places like eBay and Craigslist and sell it cheap in order to make big money, fast.

A lot of construction sites tell The News On 6 they are adding GPS tracking devices to their equipment so they can find it after it's stolen. As another safety precaution owners of heavy equipment are urged to register their equipment at the National Equipment Registry. To do that, click here.

Watch the video: Criminals Cashing In On Heavy Equipment Thefts