A stolen JCB digger worth £50,000 has been reunited with its owner after a 1,000 mile chase in the UK and Europe- thanks to a tracking device monitored by Devon security firm Securi-Guard.
Five UK police forces, Dutch and German and even Interpol were involved in the two week operation to recover the stolen digger, which was being monitored from Securi-Guard’s Alarm Receiving Centre in Plymouth, Devon. The alarm centre receiving staff kept an ‘eye’ on the movements of the digger though the tracker device hidden on its chassis as it was transported through several UK cities before being spirited abroad. They also helped to co-ordinate a major international search operation – which began in Durham and ended in a rental company yard in Holland.
Two men were arrested by Dutch police at the scene and it is believed they may have been part of an international ring stealing plant machinery for the UK and transporting it Europe to be sold on the black market. Owners CEMEX UK , leading building materials provider, were able to arrange recovery of the digger and paid tribute to the dogged work of the alarm centre staff at Securi-Guard, as well as all the police forces involved in the hunt.
Dave Gordon, CEMEX North East Regional Director for Readymix said: “In the North East we always specify tracker devices on our new plant. Recovery of the machine was due to the tireless efforts of everyone involved in this operation including all the police forces. We were very lucky to get a very expensive piece of machinery back, which proves the value of tracking devices.”
The hunt began after Securi-Guard staff received an alert from the tracker device on September 16, and after confirming with the owners that it had been stolen from a construction site in Stockton on Tees, alerted Durham police of its location, but nothing was found. The following day, neighbouring Cleveland police joined the hunt and used their force helicopter in a vain bid to trace the digger. For eight days the trail went cold, but then the alarm activated again showing the digger was in Middlesborough.
Another search of the area was made, but nothing was found. The JCB was the tracked through Carnforth in Lancashire on the 28th and then at Hull ferryport in Humberside on the 29th, but again, despite further investigations, nothing was found. Pete Stanley, Head of Telematics – UK and Europe at Securi-Guard said: “Later that afternoon we had another update showing it was off the coast and the following day things really started to hot up when we had a further alert that it was in Holland.
“It had obviously been shipped over the North Sea in a container so the Global Positioning Satellite couldn’t pick up the tracker device until it had been unloaded. The GPS can’t pick up the signal if the vehicle is undercover or in a container This would certainly explain why UK police were unable to locate it each time they were informed of its location.”
Dutch police in Rotterdam were alerted, but before the JCB could be located it crossed the border into Germany. German police located the JCB in Gildehaus, but said they could do nothing until the theft had been reported to Interpol.
As the Vehicle Identification Plate had been tampered with the problem was compounded by the fact the ownership of the JCB could not be confirmed. As the necessary paperwork was not available, German police could not hold the digger and later the following day, the 30th, the JCB was on the move again and in Holland.
Dutch police located it at the rental firm in Doetinchem and once Humberside police faxed through the official stolen vehicle report, the two men could be detained and the digger impounded so CEMEX could arrange for it to be transported back to Durham.
