Brazen thefts of farm, construction equipment plague rural Michigan
The St. Joseph County Sheriff's Office last year asked the public to help it locate a 2015 John Deere Tractor, pictured above, stolen over a weekend from a Three Rivers dealership. (Courtesy | John Deere)
By Rosemary Parker | rparker3@mlive.com
on June 29, 2016 at 1:48 PM, updated June 29, 2016 at 3:37 PM
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MI -- It didn't take much for thieves to steal the brand new full size farm tractor from a Southwest Michigan farm implement dealership last year. Police said the suspects drove up to the business, cut a wire that secured the vehicle to another tractor then loaded the tractor and drove away with it.
Police investigating theft of 2015 John Deere tractor from Three Rivers dealership
The St. Joseph County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's assistance in locating a 2015 John Deere Tractor that was stolen from a Three Rivers dealership during the weekend.
Lawn mowers stolen before Father's Day from John Deere dealership
The commercial lawn mowers went missing Friday or Saturday.
The same dealership was hit again recently, this time when two commercial lawn mowers were stolen over Father's Day weekend, Michigan State Police said.
The Michigan thefts are among a regional larceny trend targeting commercial lawn equipment, farm implements and construction equipment, Michigan State Police Det. Sgt. Todd Petersen said. Such dealerships, with their massive lots and sometime lax security, are frequent targets of theft in Three Rivers, Cass County, Coldwater and all over the southern tier of counties near the Indiana border, Petersen said.
The equipment is valuable, easy to grab, and difficult for authorities to trace once it's gone, Petersen said.
An example, a custom outfitted skid steer loader valued at about $80,000 that thieves simply loaded up and drove away, Peterson said.
Complicating the investigations, many dealerships, lacking sophisticated security systems, may not even discover overnight or weekend thefts for hours or days. "It's unbelievable," Petersen said. "Two times we've had people throw bricks through the front window" to steal chainsaws, he said, thefts that were not reported until they were discovered Monday morning.
Doug Finnerman, Store Lead at GreenMark Equipment, a recent target of thefts, declined comment for this story. "I'm sorry but I don't have time to (talk about that)," he said, adding that no one else from his company would have time, either.
Equipment theft
Detective Brett Wilson works for the Johnson County Kansas Sheriff's Department in Olathe, Kansas where farm and construction equipment thefts are not uncommon. authorities there are turning to social media for help.
Founded on June 11, 2014 the TRACE program--Theft Reports of Agricultural and Construction Equipment -- is intended to " quickly inform all participants of suspicious activities and crime in your neighborhood, farming community or construction site."
Wilson said his department wanted to be able to spread information throughout rural areas of the as well as urban Kansas City. "Let's say we have a skid steer loader stolen, we want to be able to tell other people in that trade," he said, to make public its serial number and picture so people can be on the lookout if they see it offered for sale on Craig's list or at equipment auctions.
It also gives members a wake-up call to how many items are being stolen, and how, which may prompt better security efforts, Wilson said. The program uses Facebook as a data base for stolen pieces, and sends out an email alert to members.
As a result, many heavy equipment dealerships have been putting up pipe fences around their property to prevent equipment from being driven away, he said.
It's easy
Wilson said many factors contribute to the thefts.
First, items from big name manufacturers such as Case and John Deere often have all been keyed the same, he said, to allow easier employee access on big farms and construction sites. "A company may want to order 20 trucks, all with the same key," Wilson said.
But making keys cheap and interchangeable for crew members has targeted vehicles for easy theft. "If I have a key to a John Deere Gator, I also have a key to other pieces of equipment," Wilson said. With just a few keys, thieves can gain access to equipment of the same manufacturer at farms or construction sites "all over the world," Wilson said.
In 2016 many manufacturers of large pickup trucks are just beginning to put computer chips in those because theft so huge, Wilson said.
Another reason theft is so common is the value of the equipment, Wilson said.
"A cheap three-quarter-ton plain Jane truck can cost you $45, 000 and up," he said.
"Skid steer loaders average $50,000."
Once they are stolen, the recovery rate is very low, Wilson said. Only 8-10 percent of these types of vehicles are recovered, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Unlike personal cars and trucks, these commercial items are not registered, licensed or tracked, he said.
If there is a theft of a vehicle or piece of equipment manufactured by Caterpillar or Case or John Deere or another large manufacturer, if the owner knows the Vehicle Identification Number he gives it to police and to the dealer, who will put it in the computer system, Wilson said.
But unlike a car, which is registered with the state and has a license plate that is easy to trace, the tractor or truck's number will only come up again if the new owner needs to order a part from the dealer, and even then, the number is easily faked.
Also, he said, police officers are taught to check license and registration for vehicles and their drivers, but rarely check the contents of trailers that are being hauled.
Once the stolen equipment is resold, it may never move off the farm or construction site so it may never been seen again.
Spreading the word
That's how social networking can help, Wilson said.
Detective Lt. Russell Ammon of Michigan State Police Southwest Commercial Auto Recovery unit in Kalamazoo County said the thefts are sometimes discovered when community members report suspicious purchases as well as thefts.
When items are discovered to have been stolen, authorities return them to the original owner, and the purchaser is out the money spent, no matter if they didn't know they were buying stolen goods.
That's the price of going for a deal that seems too good to be true, authorities said.
It probably is.