Motives and methods (taken from the Word to the wise...)

[Andy Collins]

Everyone who pays an insurance premium for starters

 

Really? When I had a machine stolen, the premium did not increase, and I'm still paying the same now more than five years on. It is a business cost, passed onto the clients, just as fuel price rises and other sundries. Don't get me wrong, all theft is totally wrong, and against any moral standard, but the thieves don't think like us, and to prevent further losses we have to start seeing it their way. Or carry on losing.

[Dean Lofthouse]

The stolen gear goes to people who would never normally buy expensive tackle.

 

A gardener will make do without a chipper, unless he is offered an as new one for a grand.

 

It doesn't increase sales if the Gardener has no access to stolen goods.

 

Of every stolen item you could potentially get two new sales, once when it is originally stolen then again around six weeks on when they have a return visit and all the new replacement gear is stolen.

 

Thieves don't care about you or the damage they cause, you are a nobody, they don't care if they cause £100k worth of damage stealing £1k worth of kit

 

You carry on believing the world is rosey, I assure you it isn't and stolen gear makes up for a good portion of the business sales in the uk.

[Philip Anderson]

Really? When I had a machine stolen, the premium did not increase, and I'm still paying the same now more than five years on. It is a business cost, passed onto the clients, just as fuel price rises and other sundries. Don't get me wrong, all theft is totally wrong, and against any moral standard, but the thieves don't think like us, and to prevent further losses we have to start seeing it their way. Or carry on losing.

 

Don't you believe it ,there was a time not so long ago that there was only 1 insurer present in the arboricultural sector and they on equipment all risks insurance were paying out £150 for every £100 taken in premiums ,the cost rose at that point astronomically if you were able to get it.

I think you're paying the same now as 5 years ago mainly due to the increase of insurers in the market,but this could change as it did then,think how low your premium could be if you had not had a claim ,the saving could have been used elsewhere in your business or more profit.

[Marc Lewis]

Some very interesting points made in this thread and links.

 

If there were no thieves, there would be no need for keys!! How easy would life be then!!

[MattyF]

Trackers are a waste of time , we have had a machine stolen and reported with an active tracker within 15 mins and it was never recovered.

I have been told that some gangs who targets chippers and such gear will share / hire an expensive device that locates them in seconds and they can be taken off and deactivated, even if it is tracked the police will inevitably not enter a traveller site to recover it in fear of there own safety .

[nepia]

Don't forget, most machines are into containers, down the docks and abroad before the Police have even turned out to give you a "victims of crime" leaflet to accompany your crime no. They are not feeding a market in this country, but abroad, where black market rules control everything. This is proper crime, not just a few smackheads after a fix, unless someone is giving them it to nick for them.

 

 

I'm not sure it's that clearcut. I know someone in this area who lost a shedload of arb gear and watched 3 well known auction sites daily for over a year.

A truck had turned up 25 miles from home days after the theft, a stumpgrinder was found on a specialist auction site a year later the other end of this country and a set of chipper blades turned up another few months later on the best known of all auction sites 50 miles from home.

Viewing thieves as professionals like doctors, lawyers, arbs etc but just the wrong side of the law is to give them too much credit. Only a very small number of them are that highly organised and truly 'professional' in their activities and I don't believe they account for most of the market by any means.

[Andy Collins]

So if the stolen gear is staying in this country, who is buying it all? We're not talking easily fenced items, but specialist equipment which should be readily identifiable. There is only a limited number of people in this country who may wish to buy a chainsaw. Small to mid range saws are cheap and available enough through B&Q, big top range saws are not. But the market for big saws is more limited to mainly, well us lot. Chippers are only useful to people who want to get rid of volumes of tree material, now I wonder who is most likely to need one? Again, um some of us? now of course none of us would buy dodgy, so who is? I have been told it does go through the docks and onto the E European market, and also through to Africa. I know which I believe is truer.

[Marc Lewis]

But there are loads and loads of 'us' Andy. And there are an awful lot of traveller and gypsy types that carry out our type of work. So I can believe a lot of this stolen kit is being used daily in our very own country. I'm sure too that some does end up at the docks and then overseas, but I think a great deal of it does stay here in the UK.

[likeitorlumpit]

So if the stolen gear is staying in this country, who is buying it all? We're not talking easily fenced items, but specialist equipment which should be readily identifiable. There is only a limited number of people in this country who may wish to buy a chainsaw. Small to mid range saws are cheap and available enough through B&Q, big top range saws are not. But the market for big saws is more limited to mainly, well us lot. Chippers are only useful to people who want to get rid of volumes of tree material, now I wonder who is most likely to need one? Again, um some of us? now of course none of us would buy dodgy, so who is? I have been told it does go through the docks and onto the E European market, and also through to Africa. I know which I believe is truer.

 

would they need a chipper in africa?

Surely they would just burn it as we once did

Same in E Europe

It's just waste disposal costs that generate chipper sales in UK plus labour costs obviously.

No such issue in Africa

[eggsarascal]

So if the stolen gear is staying in this country, who is buying it all? We're not talking easily fenced items, but specialist equipment which should be readily identifiable. There is only a limited number of people in this country who may wish to buy a chainsaw. Small to mid range saws are cheap and available enough through B&Q, big top range saws are not. But the market for big saws is more limited to mainly, well us lot. Chippers are only useful to people who want to get rid of volumes of tree material, now I wonder who is most likely to need one? Again, um some of us? now of course none of us would buy dodgy, so who is? I have been told it does go through the docks and onto the E European market, and also through to Africa. I know which I believe is truer.

 

I think your kidding your self on this one Andy. Believe it or not! Even arborist like a bargain.

 

I'm not saying anyone would knowingly buy stolen gear (although lots do). A cheap saw is a cheap saw, when things are hard.

 

IMO lots of the smaller (saws, etc) stolen gear won't be them many miles away from where they were nicked from. The bigger plant/machines! I'm not sure if most of it is going abroad?

 

Or is mendiplogs buying it all?