AMI Group Warns That Plant Thieves Are Targeting Small Plant Machinery

Plant thieves are actively targeting smaller pieces of plant machinery, as demonstrated by the recent recovery of a Tower Light in Worcestershire which was returned back to its rightful owner just over three hours of it being reported as stolen.

Fortunately the Tower Light was fitted with a battery operated tracking device from tracking specialists AMI Group, so when AMI’s customer realised just before 4pm on a Thursday evening that the equipment had been stolen from Ludlow, they immediately contacted AMI Group who located the stolen Tower Light via the company’s AMI Nexis web-based software portal.

The AMI wireless tracking unit was placed in an alarm state whereby an AMI finder was able to pick up a signal near a Chinese restaurant in Ombersley, Worcestershire. The finder followed the signal down Oldfield Lane and it led him to a gated field at the end of the lane. With the aid of a local resident, the finder followed the signal across the field and discovered the stolen Tower Light on the opposite side of a barbed wire fence at 5.15pm.

AMI Group immediately contacted the customer in question to organise collection of the asset. They arrived on site at 6.20pm and started to search for ways to access the field with a transporting vehicle. Access was gained and the Tower Light was hitched up and returned to the customer depot just after 7pm.

Peter Stockton, Operations Director of AMI Group said: “A trend is developing of plant thieves targeting smaller machines as they are relatively portable and can often be transported by trailers or even transit vans. In this case, we believe that the thieves had hidden the stolen Tower Light in a secluded area, with the intention of coming back to recover it over the weekend. As the tracking device has no hard wires to trace, it is very difficult to locate in the event of a theft. This recovery shows the speed with which stolen assets can be effectively recovered if they are protected against theft.”