Construction sites in Okanagan,
BC are being targeted for heavy equipment, as well as the trailers
needed to transport the equipment. Thieves took a mini excavator, a piece of
equipment generally worth a lot of money, in broad daylight from a site in Kelowna,
in the Okanagan Valley.
An equipment rental company in the area has also lost a
compressor, a Bobcat, chainsaws and generators totaling between $75,000 and $145,000.
The president of the local excavating company from whom the excavator was
stolen believes thieves are stealing the equipment to fulfill customer orders. The
president of a home design company in Kelowna feels the underground economy is
a driving factor in the ring of thefts. In his opinion, if there weren’t a
market for it, there wouldn’t be a need to steal it.
Expensive inventory is a big reason thieves target
construction sites. Not only must project managers and contractors deal with
the expense of replacing the stolen equipment, the loss can cause costly delays.
Quite often, these costs get passed on to the customer and if the project
involves new housing construction, it could impact the buyer’s ability to
afford the home.
The
National Equipment Register (NER) estimates each year, between $300
million and $1 billion USD of equipment is stolen, with less than 25% ever
getting recovered. How can you secure a work environment that is constantly
changing or may be too large or remote to adequately watch?
Live video surveillance is an effective option that can save
up to 60% on your security costs. ECAM’s proactive solution uses
a combination of video analytics and human intelligence to watch construction
sites in real time and catch events as they happen. In addition, we offer other
services like mobile and solar monitoring, gate control, as well as long-range
and thermal cameras to help protect even the most remote locations.
Construction site theft continues to be an issue for contractors,
not only in Okanagan, but all across North America. Deterrence is crucial to
keeping thieves at bay. If you would like more information about our
construction site security solutions, contact us here.
