Thieves are cashing in on heavy equipment

Builders lose time and money to equipment thefts.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Howard Middlebrook is used to getting calls from his contractor, even while he's on vacation. So he didn't think too much when he got a call while he was with his family at Lake Fork for spring break.
But it wasn't a routine question for the owner of Don and Howard Construction.
"He called and asked me if I had taken the trailer," Middlebrook said.
Middlebrook hadn't, but the 20-foot trailer, carrying an estimated $25,000 in tools, wasn't there when the workers showed up at the subdivision site in Shreveport, La.
"Someone had just pulled up, broke the lock off and drove off with it in the middle of the night," Middlebrook said. "I was pretty surprised."
Cashing in
Middlebrook's experience is one of many occurring around the nation, as thieves have begun to cash in on heavy equipment. Over the past six years, Texas especially has been a cash cow to thieves, who have made the state the leader in heavy-equipment thefts.
"That's where most of the money is," said Walt West, commander of the Tarrant County Regional Auto Theft Task Force. "They are much more valuable to thieves than hand tools."
Skid-steer loaders, which are worth between $20,000 and $25,000, and backhoe loaders and trailers like Middlebrook's are hot items and can be sold by thieves for less than $5,000, West said.
Don McCallum, vice president of De Moss Contractors in Fort Worth, said his company doesn't use heavy equipment because of the theft risk.
"Virtually every project we have something stolen, and it costs us time and money," McCallum said.
McCallum said that depending on what is stolen, workers can lose anywhere from a day to six weeks.
Along with losing time and money, contractors are unlikely to recover the equipment. An estimated 10 percent of heavy equipment is recovered, West said.
No titles
The difficulty in recovering the equipment, which usually stays within 200 miles of where it was stolen, is in determining ownership, because heavy equipment does not have titles as vehicles do. Instead, the equipment may have an eight- to 17-digit identification number.
To help with the recovery process, ID numbers can be registered and reported as stolen through the National Equipment Register, which is a company dedicated to protecting heavy equipment.
However, West said many police agencies do not know where ID numbers are or how they can be used to find the owner of the property.
Leon Kothmann, executive director of Texas Rental Association, said the group is working with local and state government to create a statewide theft task force that would focus on construction equipment.