Prevent Construction site theft

We have all driven past a construction site at some point oranother in or lifetime. There are men and women in hard hats operating heavymachinery or carrying tools. Few people stop to think that the types ofmachines being used such as cranes and bulldozers are very expensive and inmost cases are left on the job site overnight. This has given rise toconstruction site equipment theft as well as vandalism. For the worker it canbe disheartening to come to work to find your lively hood has been stolen. Forthe company owner it can mean financial ruin, loss of revenue and loss ofcontracts. For the criminal who steals construction equipment, it can mean ahefty fine and a long jail sentence.

Considering the average cost for a bulldozer can cost anywherefrom $10,000 all the way up to over $100,000, it is wise to take any and allsteps necessary to secure construction site property. This in itself may bedifficult for several reasons. For one, construction equipment is normallybrought to a location via a large truck and is stored on the jobsite. It’s notlike an operator can just drive the machine home and park it in their driveway.Another reason is that the way the machines are designed provides very littlesecurity. More often that not they are made with safety and connivance as thetop priorities, while security takes a back seat. Just as a criminal can hotwire a car or motorcycle, the same can be done with construction equipment.Savvy thieves know that the payoff for construction equipment is far greaterthan the cost of a normal car. What makes it worse is job sites are often insecluded areas where the average person wouldn’t dare go to. This provides theperfect opportunity for a thief to load the stolen goods onto a truck withoutanyone seeing. Once you factor in the models that don’t have locks on them, ormay not even have a door, you can see how easy it is to steal them.

Once equipment has been sold it’s very difficult todetermine where the machine came from. In most states you aren’t required toregister the machine as long as it’s for job site use and not driven on thepublic road. In the case of other types of automobiles, it would be easy todetermine if a vehicle was stolen or not by the license plates or vin number.

So what are the options for securing property onconstruction sites? Unfortunately there isn’t much that can be done to preventit. However, you can protect yourself by using surveillance to catch criminalswho have stolen property. Regardless of the public privacy debates thatnormally take place when dealing with video surveillance, it still works. Itworks for a deterrent to thieves who don’t want to be filmed stealing and alsoin catching those who do steal. With technology rapidly bringing the cost ofelectronic security lower and lower, this is the best cost effective insuranceyou can have on a construction site.