I hate thieves !

[JHESL]

Yep, cops are useless around here too. Most just drive around harassing folks about expired vehicle registration and other "major" crimes like that, while the real criminals get away. I'm looking at the surveilance camera option too, since my machine will be on an isolated site. There is a bunch of nice IR/night vision stuff with remote recorders on the market.
I agree on looking close to home for the culprits. I know exactly who I expect to go after my machine. Not to steal it, just to mess it up so they can get the work. But I'm not going to make it that easy for them.

 

[mitch504]

I do some jobs with a friend of mine, where we both have equipment on the site. His equipment all has aftermarket key switches, which is annoying, but....

He started this a some years ago. He left a backhoe parked in the front yard of a house beside a road that was being widened, and when he came back, it was gone. A few months later, he was driving through an APAC jobsite, when he recognized his machine. It had been accidentally been picked up by an APAC driver, and moved to another job. They washed it, serviced it, and delivered it back to him with new teeth, and an apology.

Since then, he changes key switches, and paints his name on all his equipment.

 

[Demoguy]

We got lucky and caught a theif or I should say the cops did. We had blown a main trans line on our 973, thus there was oil every where. We left to get the service truck and hoses when it all went down. The idot theif got the batteries out in middle of the day and was trying to carry them off when the police saw him. He tried to take off running and slipped on the oil and the battery actually landed on his leg sending him to the hospital and then hopefully he went to jail, but I seriously doubt he did. The police were laughing their asses off telling us what happened..

 

[JHESL]

LOL! That's funny. I guess slippery oil won out over sticky fingers! Hopefully the battery didn't damaged when it landed on his leg!;-)

 

[Taylortractornu]

The oil story reminds me of the time I had a friend call me needing in backup. He was just starting out and had a an old 580 Case hoe and a truck and a small loader. He was doing some work for a farmer and a fellow came by and wanted to borrow his machine for a few minutes. My buddies old hoe leaked almost as bad as the BP Horizon well. We went down and followed the oil trail ad found it on the side of the road. THe pump was toast. THe law couldnt help him but wetook pictures the trail from the site, to the mans house and back. He later sued the man for a new pump.

On the Apac and backhoe story a farmer near where i worked one time had an old D7G that was fairly grown up around it. I had looked at it a few times and talked to the owner. He only used it a little and it ran good but needed an under carriage bad. One moring I passed and it was dark but something didnt look right. I was on a parts run and saw a slew of cop cars on that road and the old D7G was gone.

THe Farmer was at a loss as it wasnt insured. THey rode all over the county looking for it. About 3 months later it showed back up where it was taken from with a new UC and paint and cutting edges.

The best we can figure that that another contractor working on a road cut that was running behind and borrowed the machine. THe farmer told me he had a bunch more stuff they could borrow lol.

 

[paitbrawler89]

these storys are great haha we had people try and take off road fuel from us awhile back but they couldn't get to the pumps thank god

 

[yanmarman]

Shoot them all!,its going to get worst

 

[JHESL]

I think i may have found the ultimate security system. Check it out:

http://www.fnherstal.com/index.php?id=658

Just bolt one of these suckers to the top of your excavator and put it in heat seek mode!

 

[pointrow]

Just so you don't get shot going to work in the morning!!!

 

[JHESL]

Just so you don't get shot going to work in the morning!!!

LOL! I'm hoping that they have a remote to disarm the sucker from a safe distance away!
I'm actually going to install a Viper alarm system with RFI motion sensors in the cab and the engine room. The model I have has a 2 way remote with a 1 mile range and my operaor lives within a half mile of the site, so he'll know if anyone tampers with the machine. They better hope he doesn't catch them on site messing with "his" machine, or they may become a part of the geology!
In fact, that should be a warning to all would-be excavator theives and vandals :- never mess with a man that can dig deep holes quick!

 

[Nice&Yellow]

Had hyd hoses stolen on our 323, 10 of them and some truck batteries. Made me sick so spent a lot of time researching car cameras and came up with a pretty good serveillance system. Now the machine can get be robed but now we will know who was there at what time. Funny thing is we have not been robed since just visited without stealing anything. They are not cheap but cheaper than a couple of batteries and hyd. hoses.

 

[JHESL]

Had hyd hoses stolen on our 323, 10 of them and some truck batteries. Made me sick so spent a lot of time researching car cameras and came up with a pretty good serveillance system. Now the machine can get be robed but now we will know who was there at what time. Funny thing is we have not been robed since just visited without stealing anything. They are not cheap but cheaper than a couple of batteries and hyd. hoses.

Which system are you using and how do you have it set up?

 

[The Locator]

Ok there are cameras you can get and there are alarm systems out now that will call you.Don’t get mad get even.

 

[chevota84]

Yep its much more satisfying to catch them than to just prevent them from taking stuff.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[JD955SC]

Those laws and such that the scrap dealers are supposed to follow to cut down on theft don't help one bit when the local scrap dealer is crookeder than the thieves...the one in my area had his niece and her s***bag boyfriend out gutting A/C units, including the A/C units at the park where I used to work and she was working as an administrative assistant, plus of course church A/C units and so on.

Dad caught some tweakers stealing scrap off of our property and chased them right into the waiting hands of the county deputies. One of the tweaker scumbags, I am pleased to note, broke an ankle in the process and they messed up their truck trying to ram a barricade we had at one of the entrances/exits on our property

Of course they were out on bail right away, and the geniuses were stupid enough to go stealing CSX railroad property...

The local cops hate the thieves but there isn't much that can be done about them. It's hard to catch them in the act and harder to prosecute them beyond a slap on the wrist.

This weekend our mini got hit. Someone loosened the oil filter so when it was started, oil came running out. Luckily a groundman noticed it. They also cut the wires controlling the thumb valve, cut the leads off the temp sensor, took out the dipstick and threw it somewhere, and shut off the fuel at the water separator. Doubtful it was teenagers.

Sounds like somebody is sending you a message...like that they don't like you working that job.

 

[koldsteele]

I wonder if a good bumper sticker on equipment that reads "I don't call 911 " would deter a theif ..

 

[rejohns67]

theifs

well hear in GA. We have never been able to find anyof them.

 

[expatracer]

just the other weekend had owe JD 450 and Volvo rock truck completely empty of fuel ! heres the kicker it has sercuity on the top end of the site WTF

 

[JD955SC]

I wonder if a good bumper sticker on equipment that reads "I don't call 911 " would deter a theif ..

Turns out the tweakers don't care about threatning bumper stickers, signs, etc. They don't even care if you have a gun in your hands pointed at them. They only care if you are sending rounds downrange at them.

Unfortunately we are too "civilized" to shoot thieves these days (since it's illegal in most areas with the notable exception of Texas, which has a few different ways of doing things). Hence, everybody gets their stuff stolen because thievery is a low risk activity.

 

[ddigger]

I show up to my excavator ( CAT 330L) this morning only to find someone cut my locks stole all 4 batteries and about 100 gals of fuel, not to mention the cut battery cables. Oh well at least the left me a brand new pair of bolt cutters on the tracks. Jerks! So a trip to the CAT store and 690 dollers later its back to work.

Here is how I started this thread, rather than retype it, I just copied it because the only thing different is this time it cost right at $1000.00 to fix and replace every thing. So my opinion has not changed. I still HATE THIEVES!