LoJack Help Officers Crack Construction Equipment Chop Shop
- March 26, 2013
On January 7th, the owner of a 2012 Kubota Mini Excavator contacted the Marion County Sheriff’s Office to report that their mini excavator had been stolen from a work site in Marion County. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office verified the theft and entered the equipment’s information into the state and federal crime computers, which automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the Kabota mini excavator.
Sometime later, an agent from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division picked up the silent LoJack homing signals from the stolen Kubota mini excavator on their Police Tracking Computers (PTC) installed in their vehicles. Following the directional and audible cues from the LoJack computers, the agents tracked the equipment to a private residence in the county where the mini excavator was located inside of a bay of a three car garage. State and County officers also found several more pieces of construction equipment in the back yard of the house that proved to be stolen from different areas of the state. There were two track excavators, a skid steer loader, two riding trenchers , a covered trailer and several equipment trailers. A total of fifteen pieces were seized as stolen or for having their identification plates removed , which led investigators to believe they were stolen. Four of these pieces belonged to the owner of the Kabota mini excavator but had not been installed with LoJack. One person was arrested, as this investigation has branched out into several other parts of the state. Investigators believe more stolen equipment will be found.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in the Kubota mini excavator in March 2012.