LoJack Helps Recover Three Stolen Skid Steer Loaders
- January 22, 2013
On January 13th, a worker at a equipment rental store contacted the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) to report that the store’s fence and gated storage yard had been broken into and some equipment was missing. A John Deere #326D Skid Steer, John Deere #318D Skid Steer, Bobcat S-175 Skid Steer were missing in addition to a freightliner tractor truck and a Road King semi-trailer. The three skid steers had been equipped with the LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery System. The other items were not. The total value of the stolen property was $291,000.00 plus damages to the fence / gate and other vehicles in the yard.
The CMPD verified the theft and entered the equipment’s information into the state and federal crime computers, which automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the equipment. Within minutes police in the Anderson South Carolina (over 150 miles away )area started to receive signals from the three stolen skid steers. Following the directional and audible cues from the LoJack computers installed in the police vehicles they tracked the skid steers to a wooded area with a double wide manufactured home.
Deputies from Abbeville County Sheriff’s Office approached the home and spoke with the owner. Consent to search the surrounding property was obtained and it was at this time the Bobcat skid steer was found sitting at the back of the home. The two John Deere skid steers were then located inside a dry box container sitting in the front yard. The home owner was taken inn for questioning. Personnel from the equipment rental store was contacted and went to the recovery site to take possession of their equipment.
The freightliner tractor truck and Road King semi-trailer were later recovered sitting in a parking lot of a heavy equipment garage in North Carolina.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in each skid steer in 2010.