Building site next to ours it seems had one of their digger's stolen on the weekend! I'm assuming easy pickings. No would be the wiser if they loaded the digger onto a flat bed and drove away.
Turns out 6 months ago their mobile office was broken into and laptops stolen as well.
Worked in a hospital ans some bastard had cut the plug off the heart defibulator, and the batteries had gone flat, one of our patients nearly died because of that, and plug tops changed to red and had Hospital property stamped on them.
Plant is a massive target
I worked on a warehouse project once and our hire fork lift was stolen. CCTV showed it being driven away around the industrial estate! Hardly quick, or stealthy!
The hospital ones I'm assuming were taken by some top knot wearing hipster C*-¥! As it would be so cool looking on my bed side lap.
Hipsters have no morals or souls (rant over about them now)
Gotta wonder why they would steal a plug from a hospital no less proper scum.
[url= http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35312492 ]50 km stolen road[/url]
Had a 13 tonne digger pinched from one of my sites a few years ago - the residents who constantly complained about the disruption saw/heard nothing! Had dumpers/rollers go. Elsewhere in the firm a 30 tonne digger was taken from outside the manned security cabin.
As for the laptops - surely the idea is that they are portable and therefore not left in the cabin?
I had an empty 40 cu Yd skip stolen a few years back. Police asked how I thought it'd been removed 🙄
I can't believe anyone cuts a plug off a defrib, more like it was PAT tested recently and failed, best thought it was safer without the plug, and then forgot to tell anyone. I would imagine most defribs would use a standard kettle lead.
[quote=tops 5 ]Had a 13 tonne digger pinched from one of my sites a few years ago - the residents who constantly complained about the disruption saw/heard nothing!
I doubt I would have noticed a digger being stolen from the building site here - hopefully you don't break most of the conditions of the planning application and bend the rules in every possible way in order to save money/time, unlike them.
I thought medical stuff uses special leads and plugs specifically to stop people stealing them to use on the kettle or unplugging them to plug the hoover in.I would imagine most defribs would use a standard kettle lead.
Someone stole my car headlight a few years back.
tops5 - tbh I wouldn't have noticed anything fishy they are people milling about on Saturday and on occasion on Sunday.
mrhoppy - Member
I had an empty 40 cu Yd skip stolen a few years back. Police asked how I thought it'd been removed
LOL
Found an illegal landfill site in the Cotswolds that was using a stolen 360, the thing was massive. Would of needed transporting on a low loader the works, again nobody saw anything.
Plant and tractors certainly used to be very easy to steal- most have only 1 or 2 key shapes for the entire range (John Deeres use pretty much one key for all vehicles!). They've started fitting posher immobilisers now but the older ones (over 5 years) are very easy to nick and do go regularly.
Building site cabins are a constant target, particularly the engineers cabin.
Easy target, one guy can easily carry £30k+ of kit away on their own.
Gleneagles Hotel a few years ago had their mobile back up genny nicked. Someone drove up with their Landrover, hooked it up and drove away. In full view of people in the back yard!
It's only [i]ART[/i] but this theft of Antony Gormley's Standing Figure (or green meanie as i called it) really annoyed/upset me as i used to pass it regularly on my weekly jaunts up to visit mates at Dunscore, it was set in a very contemplative area overlooking Glenkiln reservoir and was my fav place to stop and take 5mins whilst having a totally irrational conversation with the sculpture.
I hope it was stolen to order/display and not just stolen for scrap/melted down.
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-34350011 ]Antony Gormleys standing figure theft[/url]
Speaking of hospitals - Local hospital had a Christmas tree stolen in 2014. Someone walked along a corridor picked it up with all the decorations and walked out with it!
Who the **** goes to a hospital and steals a christmas tree ?!
Someone stole my car headlight a few years back.
That made me laugh out loud!
Sorry. It just tickled me.
The hospital ones I'm assuming were taken by some top knot wearing hipster C*-¥! As it would be so cool looking on my bed side lap.Hipsters have no morals or souls (rant over about them now)
Gotta wonder why they would steal a plug from a hospital no less proper scum.
Most random rant of the month.
The hospital ones I'm assuming were taken by some top knot wearing hipster C*-¥! As it would be so cool looking on my bed side lap.
Hipsters have no morals or souls (rant over about them now)Gotta wonder why they would steal a plug from a hospital no less proper scum.
Most random rant of the month.
No less valid for being random though...
Someone stole my car headlight a few years back.
I had a Bonnet nicked once. It was from an RS Turbo so had the vents.
Came back from an evening of partying at my mates who was at Brighton Uni. Got a phone call from my Dad saying the police had been in touch about the bonnet.
Off I trot to see my parked car minus bonnet with the two head lamps placed neatly on the kerb. The thieves were that thick they mangled the boot lock trying to get in, but didn't once think of just pulling down the rear seats, I mean, they were already in the car.
Phoned the AA up and a proper weird guy came with a low loader.
Thing was we may have had a herbal cigarette or 3 and my mates started mucking around saying that the AA man was a mad axe murder.....did make the evening just a bit more "weird".
Plant theft is a huge problem, there are a lot of organised gangs who steal really quite massive bits of kit that end up shipped to Eastern Europe and anywhere in the world after that.
Last time I was invovled in Plant finance in the mid 2000s HPI were building a database of serial numbers and the like (caravans and trailers too) like their car database, but it was proving tricky as not everything was on it, in fact most wasn't and there wasn't a standardised format for serial numbers or their location so theives would remove the numbers (if they could be bothered) and stamp or plant made-up ones elsewhere on the kit.
They used to put fancy trackers on the really big stuff, some of our repo guys used to work with insurers too and said once you get out of Western Europe is was very hard work to get stuff back. In the west you could call the Police and they might help you gain access to a site to look for kit if you could prove stuff was there, in Latvia and places like that is was more 'hands on' and they'd work with "serious lads" who'd effectively steal it back.
Someone stole my car headlight a few years back.
A few years back we drove some friends into London who were visiting from Canada, parked around Kensington. Came back in the evening to find their suitcase in the back of the Estate (covered with the pull on tarp)had been rifled but nothing taken.
Months later had a flat, went to get the spare tyre and yeah you guessed it ..&astards had taken the spare tyre.
If you want to see footage of a really blatant theft look up Jim Aim KTM theft, four bikes taken in approx 3 minutes, it is just unbelievable
A friend's daughter woke up a couple of months back to find that the front end of her car (Bonnet, Front bumper, lights etc) had been removed overnight. Parked outside her property nobody heard a thing even though it was alarmed.
Two weeks later the same thing was reported in the local paper to have happened to another car owner.
Someone stole my car headlight a few years back.
We were out walking in the Goyt Valley one day and got back to the car to discover it had been broken into. The haul that they'd made off with? 3 Creme Eggs.
hangings too good for them! etc, etc.....
A friend of a friend had the entire interior of his RS4 estate stolen one night while parked in a 'nice' and quite busy bit of London. 😯
After 30+break ins/thefts in 6 weeks on site ( cross green Ind est Leeds)we tried a 'pressure activated alarm system'set off by door opening pressure change. Next morning door kicked in ,usual mess alarm gone. 2 way radios also taken could hear scrotes on replacement set police tried to set up a meet but scrotes did not bite and still it continues...
Not a stolen tale as such, but years ago someone broke into my mates car, stole nothing at all, just took a dump on the back seat. It still winds him up now 😆
dump on the back seat
Now that is mean...rank.
Girl I was at uni with bought a new exhaust for her Fiesta, started itthe next morning & it sounded very loud & rorty.
Called her boyfriend to have a look at it and the exhaust had been nicked from the manifold back. They left the bolts on the floor.
We reckon it was someone from the exhaust centre, had followed her back to see where it was parked & took it off to put it back into stock. Weird coincidence otherwise....
Job I'm on now has had 2 brand new transit tippers go, what happens when people leave keys above the sun visor. They both had stihl saws inside. Lads were sat in a welfare cabin eating their dinner, left a big breaker in the doorway and some scrote picked it up and ran off up a side street with it, into a car and off.
Last job I was on someone put a vis vest on, came into the offices, picked up they keys for the engineers pickup and took it. 20k pickup with 30k of gear inside. I smell an inside job for that one though.
GTA Bradford
Plant and tractors certainly used to be very easy to steal- most have only 1 or 2 key shapes for the entire range (John Deeres use pretty much one key for all vehicles!). They've started fitting posher immobilisers now but the older ones (over 5 years) are very easy to nick and do go regularly.
As you say Farm equipment is often going walkabouts do the slightly lax approach to keys. Having said that the old mans new JCB Fastrac has a gps tracker fitted and you set a safe zone and time on the internet, and if it moves out of that zone between the set times it rings you. Having said that they've taken to just tractorjacking them during the day now as its less obvious driving down the road during the day.
I had one of those Peco big bore exhausts nicked about 20 years ago.
Mate had his van broken into and all they took was a packet of Jaffa cakes.
someone broke into my mates car, stole nothing at all, just took a dump on the back seat. It still winds him up now 😆
Would that someone be you?
A few years back, when I was working for a developer we had a load of freshly installed kitchens taken. They'd only been completed a day.
If you want to see footage of a really blatant theft look up Jim Aim KTM theft, four bikes taken in approx 3 minutes, it is just unbelievable
Jim Aim - Sible Hedingham?
One of my sites had 30m of copper cable cut out of the tower crane and cut up on site over a weekend. They turned up with a flat bed transit and cut the cable with a chainsaw into manageable chunks, lobbed it on the back and calmly drove off 30mins later.
Thieves recently tried to steal the digger from my new fire station as it was getting built. Luckily it's right next-door to one of the biggest police stations in Leeds and the dumbasses were spotted
a really blatant theft
I worked for a while in pubs. A manager in one told a story of his first day full-time in a pub. The manager left him to go and do something. A couple of guys came in 10 minutes later, asked for the manager by name, said they were there to fit the new TV. Dougie said manager was out so they said they'd fit the new telly anyway as it was already paid for. They took the old one down and.... want to guess the rest?
We have had small bits of equipment stolen from our compound by gentlemen in white Transits who just drive in and heave them in the back. After the first theft we put CCTV everywhere so when it happened again recently we were able to give the full film show to the Police. Their response? "Oh yes we know these chaps; no point in going after them because the kit will have disappeared and if you harrass them they might just come back and burn the place down."
atlaz, no that someone was'nt me. He always suspected it was one of his mates playing a drunken prank, but he never did get to the bottom of it. Unlike his back seat, which had someones bottom all over it.
Plant theft and theft from building sites in general is very very common.
Last big project I was working someone broke in and stole the fuel (red diesel) bowser two weekends in a row, turns out 1000l of diesel is pretty attractive when pump prices were close to £1.50/l. Contractors fitted CCTV after that. At the same time they also nicked a couple of 30m rolls of terram...
Someone stole 9 yorkstone paving slabs from our side path in the summer. Wife and kids were only out for an hour.
There's been so much work on the street, no-one batted an eyelid when a van and trailer turned up.
It's annoying and stuff, but the worst thing is the massive knock to my 13 yr old daughter's confidence.
She now suffers from anxiety attacks, is paranoid about someone breaking into the house and won't be anywhere without an adult now. Including in her own home. Even when we're there, she is still scared to go upstairs by herself and wants the doors and windows all checking.
I'm hoping that she will get some perspective about the probabilities and grow out of it / learn to cope with it.
The money/cost of replacement is insignificant compared to the psychological impacts.
🙁
Talking of plant theft, me and a few mates went riding up north (Sweden) one summer about 8 or 9 years ago. The exit from a well marked, but little used trail was completely blocked by a massive (huge) logging machine.
Mentioned it in the local shop, mad panic as they rang the guy who'd had it nicked the previous night and tried to explain where it was. They apparently nick em, hide em (lots of forest round there, huge areas where no one goes) then drive them out a couple of days later. Once the police are chasing round after the next theft 100km up the road....... or the weekend fights in the local town. They then ferry them out to eastern Europe. Where they disappear.
We bought a house off plan years ago, new estate and were one of the first to buy - turned out to be a nightmare as the developer was a crook and the builder way out of his depth. They wouldn't let us pull out, despite being 'finished' 4 months late.
I use the word finished in it's loosest possible sense.
Anyway, builder ends up going broke and dodgy Irish developer dude sets up another company, as they do. He starts another new development on the outskirts of a rather dodgy wee ex mining village, but as the estate is almost done, gets a visit from the planning department who stop work immediately as the houses were not put on the proper foundations for boggy area.
This was obviously going to drag on for months, and apparently he was told he would need security, but the tight wee bastard wouldn't accept it. He obviously didn't realise how dodgy the local area really was.
Within a matter of a week, every house was bare, not only had they stolen all the bathrooms, kitchens and boilers, they'd even ripped all of the gyproc off and stolen the wiring, pipes, the whole lot. Even stole the paving.
I struggled to shed a tear for the wee dick.
One of my projects on a flood defence barrier had the copper cabling inside a 9 storey tower stolen. They smashed their way to the top, cut it all there and pull it down the racking. During the same incident they also stole several UPS batteries. These batteries are 150kg each and on the 4th floor of an unlit concrete tower. We found half the batteries dropped on the steps.
They probably nicked £3-4k of copper. It cost the taxpayer £80k to put it back, not including the contingency to keep the site operational.
Lots of remote UK infrastructure sites are targeted. It's dropped off now due to the drop in value of copper. Costs the country millions, mostly in the damage they do gaining access and then on the extra security that has to be installed.
The barrier security has been upgraded now, you couldn't get in unless you REALLY REALLY wanted to now.
Had loads of plant stolen, brand new pumps worth tens of thousands smashed with sledgehammers to get to the £50 of metal inside. Diesel tanks smashed, stole what they wanted and left the rest to drain into rivers.
Had the wheel from a JCB stolen once. They undid the bolts by hand with a small spanner and got the wheel about half a mile before giving up. It must have taken AGES and hurt them a LOT.
I was sitting in a site hut once and a bloke pulled up in a tipper, got out and picked up an enormous sheet of steel covering an excavation in a live carriage, hefted into the back and drove off. We all just sat there open mouthed, no way anyone was prepared to intervene, that was a serious bit of steel...
Within a matter of a week, every house was bare, not only had they stolen all the bathrooms, kitchens and boilers, they'd even ripped all of the gyproc off and stolen the wiring, pipes, the whole lot. Even stole the paving.
Happened to a house in our street (central Cambridge) a few years back, someone gutted it completely - took all the floor boards, skirting, front door etc!
One of our site teams had a ladder nicked whilst they were on a roof.
My Dad once had about 200m of security fencing nicked!
Some travellers moved on to vacant land 100 yards from our factory and the next morning our big aluminium sign had vanished. Factory Manager and two of the biggest factory lads took a stroll down the road and there was our sign, sticking out from under a tarp. Nobody has any idea how it got there so they took it back.
Many moons ago I worked for a classic camera shop which stocked some very expensive vintage camera equipment.
Over a bank holiday a gang spent a considerable amount of time cutting nice neat square holes in our roof and the two floors below to winch a old bank safe from our ground floor store!
The safe was huge, that big the store had to be designed round it as it was far to heavy to move.
Anyway they managed to make off with it...
Yes, you guessed it, it contained nothing, they left without even taking one camera and left us with a great story and a new skylight 🙂
Police asked how I thought it'd been removed
Reminds me of an account I read a few years ago of someone having a hot rod stolen - after the distraught owner described the vehicle in the massive levels of detail that only an enthusiast who built their own unique creation could - how far the roof had been chopped, the Jag rear axle, the Viva front, the split rim wheels and foolishly sized tyres, the one-off custom interior, the one-off paint blend, the bespoke lighting etc etc he was apparently asked by Plod
Does it have any distinctive features, such as a roof rack or a towbar?
Someone stole a bag of well-matured horse poo from out the front of our old house.
On a more trivial level, I remember many years ago reading in our local paper about some chalk having been stolen from a school.
Police asked how I thought it'd been removed
Reminds me of an account I read a few years ago of someone having a hot rod stolen - after the distraught owner described the vehicle in the massive levels of detail that only an enthusiast who built their own unique creation could - how far the roof had been chopped, the Jag rear axle, the Viva front, the split rim wheels and foolishly sized tyres, the one-off custom interior, the one-off paint blend, the bespoke lighting etc etc he was apparently asked by PlodDoes it have any distinctive features, such as a roof rack or a towbar?
Why does that not surprise me?
Me & matey had been fishing on South Gare pier, Redcar (yeah I know) came back to the car & thought, 'ah good, at least the wheels are still on'. Got in the car & went to reverse out & noticed someone had nicked the drivers mirror glass.
I reckon it was that dodgy looking scrote in 4 tone Corsa that was hanging about. 🙁
Some people dressed in hi viz with stolen signs and barriers nicked an entire york stone pavement from outside our local museum a few years ago.
If they or a customer wants it enough , no matter what it is it will be taken, despite the risks to all.
Someone stole the large VW badge fixed to the plastic engine cover in my wife's locked Polo. Still haven't figured that one out.
In the 80's someone nicked the Ghia badge off my Dad's Cortina while we were visiting family in Windsor, almost as random as the theft of 3 valve caps off my Mk2 Escort while parked in Ayr a few years back!
[quote="ski"]The safe was huge, that big the store had to be designed round it as it was far to heavy to move. 😀 Theres a guy i used to work with whose house was originally built for either the local jeweller or a collector of coins/bullion etc. The safe in the basement is effectively walk in. Or it is now that a previous owner cut all the internal dividers/draws/sections out. It's about 3m by 2m and tall enough to stand in.
He used to store his garden furniture/BBQ in it during the winter
A friend of a friend had the entire interior of his RS4 estate stolen one night while parked in a 'nice' and quite busy bit of London.
25 years ago my father had a Golf GTi. His car had a special import leather interior - no other UK car had the same. He was working at Oxfam in Oxford. One evening his car wasn't there. Found in a field nearby the next day minus interior, BBS alloys and the world's biggest mobile phone....
Many years ago had the rear brake cable stolen off my motorbike (drum brakes) Luckily i lived at the bottom off a hill and only found out when i reached the top.
we very nearly lost a loader when I was an apprentice - a guy turned up in site with a low loader and some paperwork to sign, so one of the drivers backed the shovel onto the trailer and helped him strap it down...
Fortunately the gaffer turned up just as the lorry was weighing out and rumbled him!
On a more trivial level, I remember many years ago reading in our local paper about some chalk having been stolen from a school.
Did you grow up on the Isle of Wight, per chance?
Pimp yes it was that Jim Aim.
a month ago I had just decided to put the winter wheels on the van. I got them out the garage and put them in a pile in the drive whilst I had a brew and got the breaker bar out. Came out and someone had stolen one of them, the third one down mind as this had the newest tyre on! I very much doubt it was the right spec and size for their vehicle mind, so what they'd want it for is anyone's guess. Gits!
