Of the 165 stolen tractors and construction machines that were reported to insurance companies in Denmark last year, GSGroup recovered more than 30 and only a few were recovered by others.
Police and insurance companies are calling for better security of the equipment, including GPS tracking, which could raise the recovery rate to 87.
Figures from both Sweden and Denmark shows if a tractor or a construction machine is stolen without GPS tracking, there is a high risk that it will never reappear. Police are therefore urging owners to increase their focus on securing the valuable equipment. One option is to secure the equipment with GPS tracking.
With GPS tracking, it is possible to track and recover the equipment, both before and after it has crossed a border. GSGroup has a strong network of local, professional search teams that work closely with the individual countries' police units, and therefore are our opportunities for recovery very good - in fact so good that we can show a recovery rate of 85%, "says Sune Andersen from GSGroup.
GSGroup is headquartered in Norway and has 15 offices in nine countries, including the Baltic countries.
"Like the organized criminals, we also operate across national borders. The equipment are often stolen in one country, transported through another and sold in a third. That is why we have a network of partners that we work with all over Europe," says Aivars Vilnitis, Director of Recovery Services, from GSGroup.
Often, however, equipment secured with GPS tracking are recovered before it reaches it`s destination. Most recently, it happened in Copenhagen when a company detected a theft of equipment, and GSGroup was asked for assistance in recovering the stolen items.
Shortly after the theft had been reported to the police and GSGroup's alarm center, a search team was on its way. The team began the local search the moment signals from the hidden GPS tracker began reporting positions.
A few hours after the report, the stolen equipment were found in an industrial area in Hvidovre. An excavator and compressor were placed on a trailer with a number of other stolen items. The equipment were kept under observation by GSGroup's search team until police arrived at the scene shortly after.
This is a classic situation, according to Sune Andersen from GSGroup:
"The thieves have used an unnoticed moment to steal the trailer and placed it where it does not attract further attention. It's completely by the book. The trailer was simply set to cool down, and the thieves have just been waiting to see if anything would happen in the coming days, ”says Sune Andersen.
