Dealing With Equipment Theft
There’s a sinking feeling you get when you arrive at work to find that where your welder or other equipment used to be is now only a concrete floor.
Equipment theft is an expensive and infuriating experience. Downtime can run into the thousands of dollars per day while waiting for the equipment to be replaced. Renting replacement equipment is also very costly. Filing police reports and discussing the incident with your insurance company — assuming the equipment is insured — can take hours of valuable time.
An estimated 72 percent of all construction companies are victims of equipment theft. The overall cost of theft and the impact it has on construction and insurance prices is enormous.
Thankfully, there are steps that can reduce the incidence of theft and increase the chances of equipment recovery. Products that use a beaconing device to alert police to the stolen equipment’s location are one such measure.
Some companies use GPS devices to track the location of their equipment on an everyday basis, which might also be used to track the equipment if it is stolen.
Elevating welders and welder/generators with cranes is a way to avoid theft in the first place, but is limited to the number of cranes on a job site.
Have you or your company ever had a welder stolen? Did you get it back? What do you do to protect yourself from would-be thieves? Please share your thoughts on this subject in a comment below. And if there’s a topic you think we should be writing about, tell us by clicking here .
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October 4th, 2007 at 9:42 am
DeWalt makes a solution called the "MobileLock" which is perfect for recovering stolen goods. It's an inconspicuous GPS/Cellular device that mounts to anything you like. If it's stolen, you can visit a website to report the theft, which will remotely activate the MobileLock over cellular frequencies. Then, it will get it's GPS location and transmit this data back over the cell frequencies. You can then log into a website and see the exact geographic location of the transmitter and hopefully the item attached to it and the people who took it. Since each MobileLock unit cost $500 and requires a monthly subscription, it's not a cheap solution…but if you have something very valuable, it can be an incredibly effective recovery aid. Check out this article about how a Woodcraft store owner used it to foil a burglar.
October 8th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
While it does not necessarily get your stolen items returned, marking your equipment will make experienced thieves think twice before stealing YOUR stuff.
Engrave your name, put your name in weld on the running gear, paint your equipment gaudy and weird colors, alter the metal cover, etc. If marking your name on equipment, do it A LOT!! I cannot stress the importance of this. Weld your company name ALL OVER your equipment. Paint your stuff obnoxious colors; purple and orange, red, green and black, whatever! The idea is to make it very unappealing to the fence who will end up buying YOUR stolen stuff. A scumbag who is buying stolen equipment for resale MUST repaint, grind off and otherwise completely remove all traces of previous ownership.
Remember, the thief is most likely stealing YOUR stuff to resell it, not for personal use. The depressing part is that the thief will get less than half as much for YOUR stuff as you would be willing to spend to get YOUR stuff back! A thief (usually a doper), will probably get $200 for the new trailblazer that he just stole from you. Maybe $50 for the new Sthil gas drive chop saw. $20 for your torch set. You get the idea.
I grew up and did ironwork, for my own company and through the union (IW#63) in Chicago for many years, and I know what it is to get robbed. Beef up your gang-box with extra steel. Don’t trust just one chain or choker to lock up your welder. Try to hide, underneath the machine the extra locking devices or systems. Don’t let equipment out of your sight at all during the day; not everyone wandering around the construction site is a construction worker, and other trades will steal from you.
If you get robbed, check out local equipment repair shops to try to find your stuff. Look for the small time guys; the guy who’s shop looks like a junkyard and who always seems greasy is a good place to start. Local ‘flea markets’ are often a good place to go to find YOUR stolen stuff, or to view stolen stuff that was ripped off from someone else. Back about 15 years ago, I made it a point to get to know a vendor at a flea market, and to learn where his shop was and how the whole filthy business worked. It is unbelievable how much theft goes on. Being able to easily identify your stuff makes it much easier to get your stuff back. Engraving your tools is a good way to spot them if you are up close, but obnoxious colors make YOUR stuff easy to spot across the job, on the job down the road, in the shop of the fence, or across the street at the garage sale.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or need some ideas on how to protect YOUR stuff!!
http://www.eagleironworksllc.com
October 9th, 2007 at 1:36 am
Before I went to welding school, I figured that it would be a good possiblity for my tools and equip. to “walk away” so I painted everything bright orange. My welding helmets have large stickers and flowers painted on them (no self-respecting guy would be caught dead walking around with a welding helmet covered in pretty flowers even if it is a $450 helmet…lol) and I was able to spot and recover everything that grew legs and tried to walk away.
December 2nd, 2007 at 8:49 pm
i got hit last christmas eve trailblazer302 sn#lg031025 my truck was gone i found it 3 days later parked half in the road cracktown central should have painted it pink with daisies lol