With increased scarcity and supply chain disruptions, a new trend is emerging in the world of commercial theft across the U.S. and Canada. Contractor supply stores for trades – such as plumbing, agriculture, electrical, construction and more – are getting hit hard with theft of high-value, high-cost items. This increasing area of theft is getting more coverage because catching the perpetrators in the act has proven difficult and the monetary loss of these niche businesses has been staggering.
Just outside of Guelph, a township of Ontario, Canada, approximately $300k of equipment was stolen from a business … in broad daylight! Around 2:30pm on that not-so-good day during the first week of October, a truck entered the business’s yard. It was labeled with a rather generic company name – T.T. Transport – a name that doesn’t really raise any red flags. It pulled a trailer with Elite Logix Trailer printed on the side. Again, a rather generic name (even though the trailer was stolen). The activity and presence looked like a normal activity in the yard, so did not cause any suspicion to be raised.
Eleven Skyjack lifts and 25 rolls of red vinyl were loaded onto the truck and trailer. No questions asked. The goal? Delivery to two different U.S. locations. However, these deliveries were never made.
In the U.S., employees at a Central Illinois agricultural store arrived at work to missing calibration and auto guidance monitors and antennas that seemingly vanished into thin air. Wires were also cut on tractor and combine inventory. The activity was quickly recognized, and the first employees to arrive knew it was part of a new type of theft that’s running rampant.
On that same Thursday morning, things quickly spun out of control in the entire area as not just a single piece of equipment had been vandalized, nor just one agricultural store robbed. There had been multiple thefts across the business community in a single night.
From one small Illinois town’s agricultural store, eight pieces of machinery were missing antennas and monitors. From another, monitors and antennas were missing from four tractors and five combines. This meant dollars lost and the responsible parties were long gone from the scene of the crimes before law enforcement could be alerted about the theft.
Unfortunately, incidents such as these are plentiful and the stories growing across towns and urban areas in the US and Canada
A Viable Solution to Deter Contractor Supply and Equipment Dealer Thefts
Stealth Monitoring’s security solution can be customized to the environments of these niche supply stores and dealerships typically for up to 25-60% less than traditional security solutions on the market. Our remote video monitoring works in real time and is designed to help catch events as they happen. Stealth may help deter this new rash of theft and loss by using our advanced video analytics, pre-programmed across high-definition video surveillance cameras and paired with human intelligence.
Here’s a glimpse of how Stealth’s solution works:
- High-definition, IP cameras are strategically placed around your property.
- Our analytics allow the technology to filter video streams and detect certain activities and relevant anomalies without human intervention.
- When the technology identifies an activity that needs human interaction, it alerts a Stealth monitoring operator.
- Our highly trained and qualified operators take over, analyze the situation and determine next steps to deflect and deter the event as soon as possible based on the location’s protocols.
The result?
Unlike reactive or passive CCTV systems, Stealth operators can get in on the action during, not after the fact. This enables them to take a proactive approach to security and typically leads to: a. suspects being interrupted and scared off a property by an on-site speaker warning the operator activates. OR b. authorities arrive on property while suspects are still in the act and take over.
Contact our specialists to discuss how we can customize our solution to your unique, equipment supply store environment to help deter this emerging trend.
