Police on the trail of a stolen dumper tracked didn't just quickly track it down; they also found more nicked plant into the bargain. And the credit goes to the AMI Nexis plant tracking systems, it seems.
It all began with the theft of the 1-tonne Terex dumper, worth £15,000, from a construction site in Sheffield. Luckily, the equipment was protected against theft with an AMI Nexis battery-operated tracking device using GSM and RF technology. It was also registered with CESAR, the Construction & agricultural Equipment Security And Registration scheme. [Why don’t they call it CAESAR? –ed]
The machine’s owner (presumably GAP, judging by the photo above, but not specified in the information supplied) reported the theft to South Yorkshire Police. AMI’s monitoring station used the AMI Nexis software platform could see that the machine had been taken to an area in Cheshire. AMI’s finder network was despatched to locate the equipment and the tracker’s RF signal led the finder to a remote country road, eventually leading to some land near to a manor house under renovation in Aston By Budworth, near Northwich.
There they found not just the dumper but also a Volvo excavator, a Bobcat mini excavator and a trailer, all of which had also been stolen. The stolen machinery had a collective value of more than £100,000.
Police enquiries are continuing.
AMI operations director Peter Stockton says: “Plant theft is one of the biggest problems in the construction industry and it proves very costly and inconvenient for many companies. It is extremely expensive to replace large items of plant machinery and equipment theft can significantly increase insurance premiums. This recovery really does show the true value of our asset tracking systems in terms of helping AMI customers to recover their own equipment, whilst also assisting the Police to recover other items of stolen plant machinery. Over £245 million worth of customer assets are now fitted with AMI Nexis asset tracking and equipment theft systems, as they offer extended battery life more than 30% greater than alternative products and are amongst the smallest, most covert devices in the industry, making them far more difficult for thieves to locate.”
