The National Equipment Register, a division of Verisk Crime Analytics, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau recently released their national report on 2011 heavy-equipment theft. The latest report continues to focus on what types of equipment are most likely to be stolen and recovered and where in the country thefts and recoveries occur. The report's objective is to help provide equipment owners, insurance companies, and law enforcement personnel with information that can be used to help allocate investigative resources and influence theft prevention efforts.
The report draws on data from the National Crime Information Center, the NICB, and NER to provide a comprehensive analysis of heavy-equipment theft during the year. In 2011, the NCIC received 11,705 theft reports. In descending order, the five states with the most incidents of heavy-equipment theft were Texas, North Carolina, Florida, California and Georgia. Together, those five states accounted for 40 percent of total equipment theft. Rounding out the top 10 were Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma and Missouri. The top 10 states accounted for 59 percent of all thefts.
In 2011, 21 percent of heavy equipment stolen was recovered.
"The economic downturn has put financial pressure on equipment owners who have to be more careful than ever to invest in the right theft-prevention technologies and processes in the right places,” said David Shillingford, president of Verisk Crime Analytics. “The heavy equipment theft report allows them to do that."
To download the 2011 Heavy Equipment Theft Report, visit www.ner.net/annual-theft-report.html.
Headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., NICB is a leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to preventing, detecting, and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through data analytics, investigations, training, legislative advocacy and public awareness.
NER helps equipment owners manage equipment risks. Since 2001, NER has helped thousands of equipment owners and their insurers deter theft and has enabled law enforcement to recover millions of dollars of stolen equipment through HELPtech, a national equipment marking and registration program. For more information, visit www.NER.net.
