Ongoing thefts raise questions about industrial security. PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

The National Equipment Register Inc (NER) has reported rises in forklift thefts each winter since 2007, particularly between the holidays. It notes that December in each of the three years was the worst.

The ongoing thefts raise questions about industrial security and the process of tracking stolen machines.

Over the night of 1-2 February, a heavy duty forklift was stolen from the J Michael Ruane Judicial Center construction site in Salem. A gate chain was cut to gain access to the forklift, which has an estimated value of USD80,000. Dennis Gaudet, a detective with the Salem police department's criminal investigation division, is overseeing the probe.

In late November, thieves stole six forklifts from a distribution warehouse of juice processor and distributor Clement Pappas & Co Inc in Upper Deerfield, New Jersey (Forkliftaction.com News #440).

"If owners have lost machines to theft, we encourage them to report the thefts to NER," says David Grant Mossman, senior analyst with the firm. "We cannot look for machines we do not know are missing."

NER says only about 5% of the forklifts are recovered.

As for where the equipment is going, "my gut reaction, based on the level of organisation in the thefts, is that the machines are either stolen to be sold or stolen for use in committing other crimes, particularly in support of the rising level of cargo theft," Mossman says. "The thieves must need some way of moving pallets of stolen property around. This particularly points at the Class 4 and 5 machines and the rise in pallet jack thefts."

Law enforcers suggest that companies install hidden wireless global positioning system (GPS) units in forklifts and keep up to date on the exact recorded serial and other numbers on each machine.

The winter-increase pattern was tracked during 2009 although Jersey City, New Jersey-based NER has not processed all of the year's thefts yet. "The thefts slowed to very little through the summer with mostly rough terrain (straight mast and telescopic boom) forklifts being taken," Mossman says. "The primary targeted machines in the winter were Class 4 and Class 5 cushion tyre lifts. There was a slight increase in pallet jack thefts in 2009 over 2008 with several thefts of multiple units."

NER began developing databases of equipment ownership, theft reports and machine identification characteristics in 2001. Buyers of used equipment can request a search of the database through a fee-based IRONcheck service on the www.nerusa.com website.