STOLEN: John Deere 4300 W/backhoe & Loader

Bill Z

Someone helped themselves to my concrete trailer loaded with a 2000 John Deere 4300 backhoe/front end loader. Serial #LV4300H332393

Corn Pro 20' black trailer with form racks on sides. Tool boxes full of concrete tools.

Missing from Huntington Indiana Friday January 23, 2009


Times are tough, lock up your equipment better than we did!

neolitic

Sorry to hear that.

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A W Smith

that sucks, a little late to put gps on all your equipment i suppose. Did they leave a deere john letter?

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Al Smith
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Celtic

That takes a huge set to steal!

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dakzaag

Bill Z
Sorry to hear of your misfortune, the tools could walk just about anywhere, but the hoe is going to be hard to hide. Hopefully the perps are stupid enough to try to sell it at a local auction or something like that.

Not the same catagory, but my son had his laptop stolen the last day of finals at college this Christmas. Notified the school and they checked the security camera (he lived in the dorm) and they were able to identify the theif and recover the laptop in 12 hours. We think it was an athlete because basically at Christmas break athletes are the only kids that are on campus, but who knows. Of course the school wouldn't say much, wanted to handle it internally and all. We were just glad to get the laptop back.

Hope you get a similar result.

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D K & Sons
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Chris Johnson

One of the larger paving contractors in Canada got nailed for stealing equipment like that years ago...took a while, but they got the president and a few of his cronies.

Hope you get it back soon

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Chris

BreyerConstruct

Best wishes... hope your insurance is up to date!

~Matt

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Bill Z

Thanks for the thoughts, I especially like the Deer John letter!

Insurance will cover a portion. In a logical effort to save on premium a few years ago I took the comp off the trailer and just carried liability, so no coverage on theft. The tractor had $9,000. coverage and the tools will have to be documented, then we'll see.

One recommendation for everyone, take pictures of your equipment and lay out all your tools and take pictures. I take thousands of pictures of jobs, but walked right by that trailer sitting out front of a house and never gave it a thought.

Documentation would be a lot easier with a few photos of the tools that were in the boxes. If you see a John Deere hoe or loader for sale in a suspicious location, drop me a PM. They all have separate serial numbers.

joasis

All name brand equipment should have serial numbers listed with your local supplier. That said, call them and report your hoe is stolen...someday, somewhere, it will come into a dealer, or someone will try to buy a part for it. The dealer will alert law enforcement if it is on the hot sheet.

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denver 2

Sorry to hear the bad news. I have had two tandem trailers stolen over the years on jobsites that had homeowners living right next door. The last one had a logging chain running through the wheels locked and was dragged for about a hundred feet before they cut the chain. Since then I use a ball lock and try to not leave it on the job. So far I have not had any large pieces of equipment stolen, only saws, mixers, and ladder hoists. Start looking on ebay and craigs list etc. Hope you get it back.

SmithBuilt

Definitely call your dealer. I think they can list the serial number on their national network as stolen.

It may be time for me to check into the gps locators for my equipment.

WarnerConstInc.

I will keep an eye out for it in Auburn for ya!!

Jayrek

Yeah, but sadly most hot equip gets shipped overseas. But if they do what you say, the boys in blue will be on top of it.

Also, How were the tires??? If it will need rubber there are only a few tire suppliers out there that could handle the job. Alert them too, b/hoes have a habit of needing on site flat repairs.

Keep your eyes open, it is a small world after all!!!

Once you report it to your insurance they will put their recovery plans in place, listing w/ law enforcement, etc, etc.. Their in house recovery people are pretty good, a lot of them are ex-cops that have worked auto/veh. theft.

Now if you want to take an active approach in tracking down the son of a bi*ch yourself....

1) Place "Wanted" ad stating that you are a cash buyer for that particular JD, and another for the trailer.. When the calls start coming in ask them to fax you the papers, if they send them to you it is on the up and up, when they start with the song and dance it is a good lead. Place these ads on local and the not so local websites.

2) Do regular searches of trader online, ebay, craigs, machinerytrader for the model do not do a year search as the crook will probably not know. When they omit the serial ## and the photo looks like yours investigate further. This is important, nobody, nobody, knows the little details of your machine like you do.

3) Indiana and the midwest is a rather level place with little tree cover. Do you know a pilot with a plane?? Have him square off a map and take you up to 2000 ft and do an aerial search. You only need to look for the places that can store the machine. Look for the trailer outside of buildings since backhoe + trailer is too tall for most garage openings. And trailer and backhoe seprate takes too much floor space. Do it on Sunday because that is when it is not likely to be working.When I help a repo guy that I know this is what we do. (I fly and help him look)It works well for us because we have pictures and a general idea where the property is. We only do this for the larger pieces because of the costs. But it works great.Here in new england it is a little harder but we did it once in barren upstate NY, and he spotted a 40,000lb class excavator from 8-10 miles away. If you want to do this on the cheap, Call the local Civil air patrol, they do plenty of aerial searches while doing flight instruction to younger people. Ask if you cover the air costs would they help you out. They are like a boy scout troop and always looking for funding and excuses to fly. Worth a shot.



I am sorry that this happend to you, but in this country if you want justice you have to go get it, the cops won't look that hard ( no time and resources ) if nobody was physically injured.

Good luck, and a big GOOD LUCK dealing with your ins. company.

Elite Perf Sup

Sorry to hear about that. Hopefully insurance can help you out.