Stolen Equipment

[invincible569]

If your gear gets stolen, is there a formal procedure to finding your equipment and reporting it? Or do you guys not even bother? For example, my father was at a clients business 2 wks ago with his van and trailer fully loaded with equipment. Windows were left down in the vehicle. Father said he went out of sight for 5 mins.. (im sure it was more)... and when he came back, his vehical and trailer full of commercial equipment was gone. Trailer had a bunch of weed eaters, blowers, walk behinds, etc. Too much to name. And in his van he had chainsaws, trimmers, irrigation equipment, etc. ALL GONE at the blink of an eye. Anyhow, he called me right away and I called 911 to have the police over his area right away. It was starting to get dark, so I knew there was going to be no hope. He filed a police report and that was it. Nothing more. He lost a lot of money that day. A week later, he gets an anonymous call from a person letting him know that his trailer and van have been sitting in his front business parking lot for a week. He was thrilled!! The good thing is that his trailer, van and big walk behind mowers were still there. Everything else was gone. The guy who found the van, opened it and called the business card which was my fathers. Oh, one thing that upset me was that he said he called the police twice and they never came to investigate the van/trailer so thats when he decided to open it himself. Anyhow, if you guys know of a procedure for filing stolen equipment or anything else, so I know for future reference, then please let me know. And to all, dont loose sight of your equipment!

[knowltondata]

Amazing how fast people can clean out a truck/van... my uncle lives in Dawsonville, Georgia and he had a load of plywood in the back of his truck (I think it was around 15 sheets) he stopped at the local yokal convenience store for a cold one, in the time it took him to go inside, buy it, and come back out, the plywood was gone and so were the theives.

[hunter]

All you can do is have a record of all your serial numbers and report that to the police. The police can acutally look up stolen equipment pawned over the internet. All pawn shops have to report serial numbers on merchandised bought.

[cmorris]

Wont the insurance cover it?

Mine covers anything that gets stolen, and I get replacement cost.

[Stephen M.]

Wont the insurance cover it?

Mine covers anything that gets stolen, and I get replacement cost.

I see that all the time here: guys and gals who are out of business because they decided to "save money" by not having their equipment insured.

Three important insurances to protect your livelihood:
1. Liability to protect your assets.
2. Property insurance to protects your equipment should it be stolen.
3. Auto insurance.

Just about 2 weeks ago a lady calls and says that her stuff was stolen and please call her if somebody tries to sell me Stihl equipment.

Definetly record those serial numbers; take a picture of it; and make a police report. Make a BIG paper trail and visit Pawn Shops with your serial numbers. Most thefts here are drug related. Meth is plentiful and very addictive.

[rogerservesyou]

Yup insurance is always your best bet. Police honestly put stolen property way down the list somewhere near jaywalking in church zones it seems. Small items will be the most likely targets (chain saws, weed wackers, push mowers, blowers, and so on) since they are the easiest thing to move.
Often thieves will go one or two towns over before they attempt to pawn it, or worst case they are semi-pro's and utilize services like ebay.
We have already painted on "property of "xxxxx" 555-5555-5555" using industrial paint onto our equipment. Plus side is it is a pain to remove and pawn, downside is very hard to resell if you ever want to, or if you change numbers.
Then we did the normal rutine of marking down all serial numbers inside of the manual. We also photograph all items, and digitally store them on CD. We also scan all of our reciepts that go along on the CD with the items.

When reporting the theft. Wait however long it takes to get an officer and make sure they file a report and you get your copy of it. (your insurance will want this) You may follow up with the police every week, though do not expect anything at all from them. Lastly if it was a good deal of equipment stolen, talk to the local news. They ussually do not have enough stories to run during all of their broadcasts and will often run a piece on it, specially if there is some sort of reward. This most likely will not get you your items back, but it will provide your company with some nice advertising on TV.

[knowltondata]

If someone steals your lawn/construction equipment, start snooping around Mexican's trucks... there's where you'll find yer stuff.

[rogerservesyou]

If someone steals your lawn/construction equipment, start snooping around Mexican's trucks... there's where you'll find yer stuff.

Well G, that just smacks of racism.

[knowltondata]

Well G, that just smacks of racism.

Define racisim.

[rogerservesyou]

Define racisim.

In that instance, broadly associating one race as being thieves.

[knowltondata]

In that instance, broadly associating one race as being thieves.

Society has changed the definition. The definition is a percieved superiority over another group. If one group is thought of as theives because a majority are, that is not racisim. If one group is thought of as rapists and murderers because a majority are, that is not racisim. That is calling it like it is.