Case of the missing equipment - part 2

The question was who was doing this? Then why? And finally how?


Start with the last question, how. It seems easily answered. Except we had different equipment on the project. We had Cat, Case, and Komatsu, all required different keys to start. Even the Cat keys were two different types since the scrapers and the D-8 dozer were cable models and the 225 trackhoe and D-4 dozer were newer models. Also,the newer models had kill switches on them, we made sure these were in the kill position every night before we left. So the answer to how was he had to be an operator with keys and knowledge to start and move the equipment.

The question who, we thought it was obvious. It was some one who had worked for us in the past, maybe some one we fired or didn't hire? I concentrated on this even though I was new.

The why, again it was someone with a grudge against the company. They have done over twenty thousand dollars in damage. The next question was, is this enough? Since we still had no clue who or why we needed to have some protection.

So far we had been hit on Friday night or Saturday morning, and on Sunday night or Monday morning. This next weekend I sat out there on Friday night, our chief mechanic took Saturday night, and Sam took Sunday night. They struck again on Monday night. Out the window went theory of them having a job and they only struck on nights they weren't working.

On Tuesday morning after making the latest police report the decision was simple, to contract off duty sheriff deputies to guard our equipment. Since all the damage was done between two and four in the morning we had them start at midnight and would be there until six.

That night the captain that I was talking to drove by the site around six pm and saw all our equipment lined up about one hundred and fifty fee off the road. The deputy that was to sit our there drove past the site around nine pm and didn't see any equipment. Guess what? They hit us between six and nine. The deputy sat out there and guarded nothing. The damage had been done.

Now I was convinced that this was an inside job. Our employees knew the deputy sheriff's had been hired. Who else could it be. The captain from the sheriff's department and myself decided on a new strategy. Random times, he would schedule men to be on site the patrol right before they are to be there. These times would be from six pm to six am, four hours at a time per night. I would the only person knowing these times and I wouldn't tell anyone including Sam.

This seem to work, for about three weeks. Then on a Saturday morning I get the call from Lonnie. “Have you moved my backhoe out?” I told him to look for it.

The next call, “I found it, you'll never believe it, send a mechanic.” This said all before I could key up my mic to ask any questions. When I did get a turn to speak, it was to come out and see for myself and bring a camera.

They backhoe was in a ditch, upside down resting on the roll over protection or most people would say on its top. The key was in the on position so it had been running when it landed there. To this day I do not know how it got in that position and if someone was driving it how they got out without killing themselves. The sheriff did check the local hospitals.

Mystery solved. On Wednesday morning I got a call from a deputy. He was scheduled to be on duty the night before when he drove by he heard our equipment running. He pulled back into the site and saw three kids starting our equipment. He pulled up and flashed his lights they were off like jack rabbits through the woods. He never caught them.

When he called he asked if the company would press charges. When he was told that we would rather hire them he laughed. It's true, fifteen, sixteen year old kids operating equipment like they were, it had to be a hidden talent. I've been around equipment all my adult life and it would take me about thirty minutes to move a Cat 225, they were doing it in five. It would take me longer than that to find the kill switch.

The deputy said he got a good look at two of the boys, he would go through the local school year books to try and locate them. He, also, went to all of the local farms and told them who he was looking for and the damage totaling over thirty thousand at this point. To my knowledge, he never did locate them. No arrest were made. The company paid all the damages.

So, I was wrong on it being an inside job, on the profile of who was doing it, and on why anyone would be attacking us in this way. It was kids, they went to Cat and got keys. They told them it was for their fathers. I assumed they did the same to obtain the Case and Komatsu keys. They practiced on our equipment.

They baffled me and made me mad. To this day I am still amazed how they didn't end up dead. God must have been looking out for them.