CanTrack has commented before on the recent trend for professional thieves to steal compact construction equipment and move it in large panel vans. This recovery follows the trend.

The story starts with a report from a leading Plant Hirer that one of their Kubota U10 Micro Excavators had been stolen from a site at St Agnes Church, St Leonards Road in Windsor. Unusually the theft had been witnessed by a member of the public who then reported it to the police after seeing the machine being loaded into the back of a white van. The theft took place at 8 p.m.

 The micro-excavator was fitted with a robust, compact, self-contained CanTrack Asset. As soon as the report came in CanTrack’s operations room sent a signal to the Asset to switch on its homing beacon and transmitter. They also assigned one of their experienced, ex-police, investigators to the case.

 Within an hour of the reported theft the Asset unit updated its location showing it was now in the Denham area of Middlesex, only 11 miles from the theft site. CanTrack’s investigator immediately set-off for the new location. When the investigator arrived in Denham he immediately commenced the search for the stolen machine using a radio frequency (RF) signal receiver. He initially picked up a faint signal, which became stronger as he travelled south in Penn Drive.

 After 5 minutes circling the area the investigator found a white Ford Transit high top van with a small legend on the side “Ground Maintenance” parked and unattended. The RF signal was exceptionally strong near the van and CanTrack’s investigator assessed that due to the strength of the signal the Asset and the stolen Kubota were in the van. He also noticed that the van was very low on its suspension, which strengthened his conviction.

 At this point CanTrack contacted the police officer, who was dealing with the theft, to arrange assistance. After less than 30 minutes the police arrived on the scene. They quickly established that the Transit was stolen and on false index plates. The police decided to be recover the van for a forensic examination. Inevitably the stolen Kubota was found in the van when it was opened by the police.

 Again this ‘same-day-recovery’ shows the power of the CanTrack Asset and the efficiency of CanTrack’s recovery process both contributing to CanTrack’s impressive 90%+ recovery rate.