Mini Excavators Most at Threat of Being Stolen in Plant Fleets

Mini Excavators are currently the most stolen piece of plant machinery in the UK, according to figures released by PANIU (The Plant & Agricultural National Intelligence Unit) in the latest PANIU Report.

During 2016, a total of 589 Mini Excavators were reported as stolen nationwide, representing an increase of 10% from 533 in 2015. Plant thieves target these machines due to their relatively compact size and ease of concealment. Dumpers are the second most likely piece of plant machinery to be stolen, with 363 thefts reported in 2016.

AMI Group protects Mini Excavators across the UK with a range of tracking devices to ensure they can be swiftly recovered in the event of theft. In one recent example, a Kubota KX16 Mini Excavator was stolen in the Leeds area and despite being completely stripped down, the plant thieves failed to locate and remove the tracking device and the Kubota machine was rapidly recovered.

The Mini Excavator was owned by one of our customers and when it was stolen from a construction site in Leeds, the customer contacted us as fortunately it was fitted with an AMI Nexis GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking device. Our monitoring station was able to instantly access the AMI Nexis web-based platform to establish the exact time of theft, the route taken by the thieves and its destination.

The GPS data revealed that the stolen Mini Excavator was located in Coupland Road, Leeds, and our customer set off to search for the machine. However, whilst the customer was in transit, new GPS data was provided by the unit, indicating that the Mini Excavator was on the move once again. Despite being transported inside a vehicle, our tracking device was able to reveal the new location utilising GPS data and the latest Google mapping within seconds. This data revealed that the machine had been moved a mile away and it was found and recovered off Selby Road in Leeds. The customer was quickly able to go to the new location and recover the Mini Excavator. This ensured there was very little disruption to the customer involved and they also avoided the huge potential cost associated with plant theft.