When contractors install LoJack recovery systems into their machines, it is the one thing they hope to never use.
That was not the case recently for Paul Fulmore from Riverside Asphalt Services, who bases his business in Hyde Park — the southernmost section of Boston.
Paul, his wife, and owner of the business Doreen Fulmore had made a decision to install LoJack into all of their paving equipment. That included four Gehl skid steers, one Takeuchi 135 excavator, one Leeboy 635 grader, two Komatsu loaders, one Ford 350 dump truck, one Cimline rubber melter, and one Mack tanker.
And it's a good thing they did!
One day this past summer, thieves broke into the Riverside yard and loaded two Gehl skid steers on top of Riverside's Ford 350 dump truck trailer and drove away.
"There was $58,000 worth of skid steers there," Fulmore said. "The skid steers were four years old."
To make matters worse, Paul, who had been ill, was at the hospital getting a CAT scan.
"My wife called me in a panic," Fulmore said. "She had to page me, because I was preparing to lie down on a CAT scan machine at Beth Israel Hospital, in Boston. I had spent the previous six months in the hospital after having received a liver transplant. This theft could not have come at a worse time in my life. All I could say to my wife was 'Did you call LoJack?' Actually, that was all I really needed to say."
Later that evening, the stolen machines were recovered in a garage of a million-dollar home with in Wrentham, MA. The Ford 350 dump truck trailer was discovered abandoned in nearby field.
"They had put up a helicopter in order to find out where they were," Fulmore said. "Three state troopers went to the house and knocked at the door. At first the people refused to open the door, but they finally did and told the state troopers that the skid steers were there because they were doing some paving on the premises. They eventually admitted to paying $7,000 for the two skid steers and ended up being witnesses against the thieves. I got my machines back thanks to Cal Dermond of LoJack and Mass. State Police Sgt. Scott Collins, of the Governors' Auto Theft Task Force. LoJack saved the day for me. It is the wave of the future. You can't afford not to have it."
After the recovery, Fulmore also installed an $8,000 camera system in his 30,000-square-foot yard.
"In 20 years I have never been vandalized," Fulmore said. "They did about $4,000 worth of damage. They broke the windows and threw a door on the ground. We lost two days of work. Now, I box the machines in and at a job site. I try to leave the machines under a light or near a house."
