LoJack Corp.’s Stolen Vehicle Recovery System helped Chicago-area police find a major construction theft ring and recover more than 30 pieces of construction equipment/commercial vehicles valued at nearly $900,000.

The recovery was made at a chop shop in East Chicago, Ind., on June 14, after a Chicago Police Department helicopter equipped with a LoJack police tracking computer picked up a signal from a stolen international truck. The chop shop contained an array of stolen items, including semi-tractors, mini-excavators, skid steers, trailers, compressors, generators, welders and several loads of cargo that were taken from the stolen semi-tractors.

"The discovery of this chop shop demonstrates just how vulnerable construction equipment is to the growing problem of theft, which is estimated to cost construction equipment owners approximately $1 billion annually," said Ronald Waters, LoJack's president and chief operating officer. "Inadequate site security, lack of standardized product identification numbers and easy to access cabs all make construction equipment an easy mark for thieves who are often part of organized crime rings."

In this case, many of the units were stolen so recently that owners did not even realize the equipment was missing, police said. To date, one arrest has been made and other persons of interest have been identified.

Westwood, Mass.-based LoJack Corp. is a global leader in tracking and recovering valuable mobile assets. According to the company, its stolen vehicle recovery system delivers a better than 90-percent success rate and has helped recover more than $4 billion in stolen LoJack-equipped assets worldwide.