LoJack's Study Probes Equipment Theft

LoJack's seventh annual Construction Equipment Theft Study in 26 states suggests that theft rings continue to drive construction-equipment theft. Law enforcement discovered eight theft rings and chop shops by tracking and recovering stolen machines equipped with LoJack. Through these discoveries, police also recovered more than $2.

Staff

May 31, 2008

LoJack's seventh annual Construction Equipment Theft Study in 26 states suggests that theft rings continue to drive construction-equipment theft. Law enforcement discovered eight theft rings and chop shops by tracking and recovering stolen machines equipped with LoJack. Through these discoveries, police also recovered more than $2.5 million in stolen assets that had no LoJack devices.

The types of equipment most frequently stolen are (in order):

Skid steers
Backhoe loaders/skip loaders/wheel loaders/track loaders
Generators/air compressors/welders
Light utility/work trucks and trailers
Forklifts/scissor lifts
Dump trucks
Light towers
Mini excavators

These equipment types represented more than 80 percent of all construction-equipment recoveries documented by LoJack in 2007. More than 74 percent of the equipment stolen and recovered was five years old or less.

States with the highest theft rates include:

California
Florida
Texas
Arizona
Georgia and Nevada
Maryland and New Jersey
North Carolina
New York and Pennsylvania
Illinois
Colorado and Louisiana

To improve the chances of recovering stolen equipment, LoJack recommends marking machines in multiple locations with unique identifying numbers, including product identification numbers (PIN) and owner-applied numbers. Keep an accurate inventory, recording the manufacturer, model number, year, purchase date and PIN for each piece of equipment andserial numbers of each major component. Consider registering machines with a national database.