Despite a Bomag Tandem Roller being stolen and completely stripped down in the Leeds area in search of a possible tracking device, the machine has been successfully returned to its owner thanks to the installation of a well-hidden AMI tracking system.
Upon arrival at the depot yard in Leeds, AMI’s customer quickly realised that a Bomag BW120 Tandem Roller had been stolen over the weekend. Luckily, the roller was fitted with an AMI Nexis GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking device and the owner of the roller was able to log on to the AMI Nexis web portal directly and use GPS data to establish the route taken by the thieves and its current destination.
Once the position of the stolen roller was confirmed in Methley some 10 miles away, the customer notified AMI Group and arranged for one of their Engineers to go to the location accompanied by the Police. Using the GPS data, the roller was quickly located by the roadside and subsequently returned to the customer. It transpired that the thieves had completely stripped down the roller, clearly in search of a tracking device to try and disable it, but nothing had been found. Unbeknown to the thieves, the AMI tracking device was covertly hidden and able to transmit data indicating its location.
Peter Stockton, Operations Director at AMI Group said: “This recovery really does illustrate how our tracking devices can be covertly hidden to avoid detection from thieves. In this instance, the criminals most probably thought the roller wasn’t protected with an anti-theft deterrent and they had got away with the crime, but they were mistaken and the matter is being investigated by the Police. In recent months, we’ve noticed that rollers are a ‘hot’ target for plant criminals as they are relatively easy for criminals to conceal and transport in a panel van or similar.”
Photograph for illustration purposes only – courtesy of Wikimedia.
