An AMI tracking device has not only led the Police to successfully recover a stolen roller owned by AMI’s customer, it has also led to the recovery of two stolen vehicles and the discovery of a cannabis farm on a cluster of travellers’ sites in Brigg, North Lincolnshire.
It is the second time in recent months that AMI tracking devices have led to the recovery of stolen equipment on the travellers’ sites in Mill Lane, Brigg. In September 2016, a stolen mini digger was recovered following an extensive recovery operation which involved AMI Group, the owner of the mini digger and a total of five Humberside Police units including a Taser unit.
In the latest recovery, a roller owned by one of AMI’s customers was reported as stolen at 8.30am on a Friday morning. Fortunately, the roller was fitted with the AT5, a self-contained, wireless, battery operated tracking device, so AMI Group were able to supply the customer with the exact Google maps position of the missing machine by using the company’s AMI Nexis web-based software platform. It then became apparent that the roller was located on the same cluster of travellers’ sites as the previous AMI recovery.
AMI’s customer met the Police near the travellers’ sites later that morning and the Police gained access to try and locate the stolen roller. Not only did the Police find the roller hidden in a smokehouse on the site, they also found a van that had been reported as stolen, as well as a stolen burger van. More extensive searches of the site led to the uncovering of a cannabis farm.
Peter Stockton, Operations Director of AMI Group said: “This recovery shows that our tracking devices not only lead the Police to equipment stolen from AMI customers, it also leads to the recovery of other stolen equipment and more criminal activity. In this case, our customer reported their roller as stolen at 8.30am and they had it successfully recovered by lunchtime on the same day, avoiding the high cost and inconvenience often associated with stolen plant. In the case of the roller, the thieves had only had it for a matter of a few hours but in that time they had managed to totally strip it down. They found that it was protected with an alternative supplier’s keypad immobiliser which had been bypassed, but they were unable to locate our AT5 device as there are no hard wires to trace, so most likely presumed it wasn’t tracked.”
The AT5 can be covertly installed on plant machinery and is ideally suited as an after-theft unit. Just 54 x 65 x 37mm in size, the AT5 has a battery life of up to 20 years and it utilises highly sensitive assisted GPS positioning accurate to within 1 metre. The AT5 provides a ‘fit and forget’ solution and it can be transferred from machine to machine with ease within minutes.
