Thieves Target Heavy Metal

January 1, 2011 / 3 min read

JERSEY CITY, N.J. and DES PLAINES, Ill., October 26, 2009 — The National Equipment Register (NER), an ISO company, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) today released their first joint heavy-equipment theft report. The report illustrates how equipment owners and insurers pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year to replace stolen equipment. The report also highlights the significant indirect costs to the economy, such as project delays to critical infrastructure projects and delayed building occupancy.

The report draws on data from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), NER, and NICB to produce a comprehensive analysis of heavy equipment theft. In 2008, 13,511 theft reports were submitted to NCIC. In descending order, the five states with the most incidents of heavy equipment were Texas, Florida, North Carolina, California, and Georgia. Together, those five states accounted for 43 percent of the total equipment theft. Rounding out the top 10 were Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Illinois, and Missouri. The top 10 states accounted for 61 percent of all thefts.

In 2008, only 21 percent of the heavy equipment stolen was recovered. That compares with a 57-percent recovery rate for all other motor vehicles.

“The report is another benefit of the NER-NICB strategic alliance announced last year, which enabled data sharing between the two organizations,” said Joe Wehrle, NICB’s president and CEO. “NER’s extensive databases of heavy equipment ownership and theft information coupled with NICB’s access to NCIC data and our national network of investigators specializing in heavy equipment identification and recovery provide an unprecedented security environment for heavy equipment owners and insurers.”

David Shillingford, president of NER, noted that “Information sharing is a force multiplier. Equipment owners and insurers have joined together to provide law enforcement with the information needed to quickly identify suspicious equipment, leading to millions of dollars of recoveries each year and significantly increasing the risk of arrest for equipment thieves. Those buying used equipment should exercise due diligence through IRONcheck before making a purchase. That will make it harder for thieves to sell stolen equipment.”

About the National Equipment Register
The mission of NER is to increase the recovery rate of stolen equipment and reduce the costs associated with theft for owners and insurers. NER combines systems, staff, and procedures to provide secure and accurate information services to law enforcement, insurers, equipment owners, and the equipment industry. Operations revolve around its databases of stolen equipment and equipment ownership, NER operators, and training and awareness programs. For more information, please contact NER at 201.469.2030 or by e-mail at info@nerusa.com. You can also visit their website at www.nerusa.com.

About the National Insurance Crime Bureau
Headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., the NICB is the nation’s leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through information analysis, investigations, training, legislative advocacy and public awareness. The NICB is supported by more than 1,000 property and casualty insurance companies and self-insured organizations. NICB member companies wrote nearly $343 billion in insurance premiums in 2008, or more than 82 percent of the nation’s property/casualty insurance. For more information, please call 800.447.6282, email info@nicb.org or visit www.nicb.org.

Release: Immediate

Contacts:
Ryan Shepherd
NER,
201-469-2030,
rshepherd@nerusa.com

Frank Scafidi,
NICB,
916-979-7025,
fscafidi@nicb.org