New GreenMech SafeTrac 1928 Stolen

[PeteB]

This very distinctive Safetrac was stolen off of a Network Rail site in Aylesbury last night. Please contact Col Bachman at Chipper Hire South West on 01404 598283 or 07581 050441 if you have any information. 

[dig-dug-dan]

2 hours ago, PeteB said:

This very distinctive Safetrac was stolen off of a Network Rail site in Aylesbury last night. Please contact Col Bachman at Chipper Hire South West on 01404 598283 or 07581 050441 if you have any information. 

I saw this on the Facebook page. any idea on exact location, as I know aylesbury quite well, its not far from me

[PeteB]

40 minutes ago, dig-dug-dan said:

I saw this on the Facebook page. any idea on exact location, as I know aylesbury quite well, its not far from me

Not sure, a call to Col or message through Facebook might reveal the location.  We have done a Round Robin email to our dealers and their Service/Parts people but it is a vain hope! 

[dig-dug-dan]

How on earth can they even sell such a unique machine on? Strip it for parts I suppose!

Out of interest, do you and your dealers ask for a serial Number when people ring up for spare parts? I always think, no serial number, no parts. That way, you can almost trace these things somewhere down the line

[openspaceman]

36 minutes ago, dig-dug-dan said:

How on earth can they even sell such a unique machine on? Strip it for parts I suppose!

Out of interest, do you and your dealers ask for a serial Number when people ring up for spare parts? I always think, no serial number, no parts. That way, you can almost trace these things somewhere down the line

The first point is that though it's a £30k machine the thieves will probably only sell the bits for a tenth of that, what's left over will be put in the back of a scrap car on its way to the crusher never to be seen again.

 

Whenever I phoned up JCB for parts I was always asked for the serial number, which struck me as a sensible first step, but any career thief would know another similar machine's number so this is likely only to catch out a buyer.

 

One thing about the engine management on these machines is that if you cannot start the engine they are difficult to move, so when ours were stolen on two separate occasions they had been left on trailers.

 

The other thing is as long as they are out of reach of Hiabs then there was an immobiliser built into the engine management , it was time consuming to enact and also to disarm, it re armed after each time the engine stopped. It then took minutes to restart, so the blokes either left the machine running all day or simply left it as key start.

[PeteB]

To be honest, while we do the 'round robin', I doubt it will be found as is probably far away by now. I can only recall 6 or 8 that have been recovered/discovered, identified and or returned in 2dozen years! I can recall some 20 years back of one being buried in the South East as too hot! 

 

One of our staff saw one on the side of road in Mexico while on holiday. It had been an uninsured loss at the turn of the century! The other year,  a traveller brought an old one off of a mobile based selling platform,  I was suspicious and discovered that the theft had not been reported to us. They went to the nick, no record on the PNC or with the regional force so it stayed with them!

[dig-dug-dan]

7 hours ago, openspaceman said:

The first point is that though it's a £30k machine the thieves will probably only sell the bits for a tenth of that, what's left over will be put in the back of a scrap car on its way to the crusher never to be seen again.

 

Whenever I phoned up JCB for parts I was always asked for the serial number, which struck me as a sensible first step, but any career thief would know another similar machine's number so this is likely only to catch out a buyer.

 

One thing about the engine management on these machines is that if you cannot start the engine they are difficult to move, so when ours were stolen on two separate occasions they had been left on trailers.

 

The other thing is as long as they are out of reach of Hiabs then there was an immobiliser built into the engine management , it was time consuming to enact and also to disarm, it re armed after each time the engine stopped. It then took minutes to restart, so the blokes either left the machine running all day or simply left it as key start.

The solution when ordering parts, is that the serial number needs to be given, and it needs to match the owner on the database, and the delivery address of whom the machine is registered to. That way, giving a serial number from another machine wont work. Come on greenmech, time to up your game on that!

[timbernut]

The solution when ordering parts, is that the serial number needs to be given, and it needs to match the owner on the database, and the delivery address of whom the machine is registered to. That way, giving a serial number from another machine wont work. Come on greenmech, time to up your game on that!

Surely in order for that to work you would need a system similar to v5 document for 2nd/3rd/4th hand machines, otherwise there could b a massive lag in getting an urgently needed replacement part , I bought my 1928 from a non greenmech forestry machinery dealer and I don’t know who they got it off.....

[Khriss]

Sounds like its a theives dream. So desireable and easy to find buyer. Wot are the police doing with all this camera network our tax money has paid for?  Aylesbury from memory has a modern network with plenty of coppers in cars an ANPR cameras. Werent chucked in the back of a Micra, now, was it!   K

Edited October 15, 2020 by Khriss
( probably in Wales by now.....)

[PeteB]

The stories that we get to hear about the circumstances of stuff being pinched is long and sorrowful. Even had stuff stolen and not reported to us! As so little gets recovered, we would still think that most of it leaves the country quite quickly.

 

Some is sold or brought by legitimate people but that is rare. For those who are offered anything 'right cheap', there is usually a reason behind that price, and that could be because it is knackered, not theirs to sell or not a genuine product. There is no thing as a 'steal' - it has been stolen!

 

The people who feed the flames of this crime are as guilty as those that did the act. Do not buy stolen equipment without checking the provenance first.