Pete Murphy runs his business, Murphy’s Contractors Equipment, with an open mind and a good sense of humor. But when one of his rental customers called first thing in the morning asking, “Why did you pick up that Bobcat last night? I still need it”, Pete knew this was no joking matter. He sat down at his computer and pinpointed his machine’s location via the hidden Titan Equipment Monitoring System unit installed on it.
Sure enough, it was well off the jobsite and in southside Chicago. Pete called the DPL Telematics support line, and was instructed to remotely disable the machine from starting and call the police immediately. With a click of his computer mouse, he shut down his stolen machine from miles away. The police responded to the location he gave them, and found evidence of a very calculating, knowledgeable thief at work.
Putting You In Control
By immobilizing his Bobcat S250 remotely, Pete had thwarted the crook and his attempt to transfer the skid loader to its final location. Inspection of the stolen machine showed that one of the headlights had been removed so the wiring from the ignition (which runs just behind it) could be accessed. The thief had attempted this hotwiring in response to the remote shutdown, and still was unable to get the machine running once the Titan had disabled it.
Half the company decals and identifying marks had been stripped off the Bobcat, and the ground was littered with decals from a number of other machines. Clearly, this yard was a staging area for stolen equipment being moved out of the state. Though the thief was not at the scene, he had left his gym bag with some clothes, his wallet, identification and a ticket to Memphis in it where a buyer was already in place. A later theft report Indicated that another machine, from a different rental house, was Also stolen off the same job the previous night as well – most likely by the same thief.
Slowing Them Down
Stolen equipment is often moved to their buyers or out of the country within a few days, so slowing them down significantly increases the chances of recovery. The police suspect that when Pete’s machine did not start, the thieves quickly abandoned it and left the staging yard with their other stolen machine instead.
The logic is sound: why would a criminal want to be kept at the scene of a crime when he or she could walk away with half the goods and a significantly less chance of being caught. By locking down his machine remotely, Pete threw a wrench into the crooks’ “quick getaway” and saved his stolen Bobcat from being transported further.
