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You know, the typical white Ford E-350 (or whatever) with ladders racked on top. Inside equipped with bins and racks for tools and parts. One of my sons-in-law is a building maintenance guy, he works for companies that provide such a truck for his use. These companies have him drive it to and from work so he can make the most efficient first stop of the next day. They are equipped with a GPS to enable the company to tell how their vehicle is being use and to aid in recovery in case of theft.

For quite some time, I've thought that these were a perfect target for thieves. They know these trucks tend to be just stuffed full of tools and equipment that is easily flogged on Craig's List or wherever. Personally, I don't know if the van itself is worth anything to them. Some stolen cars get put in shipping containers and sent to Russia, Africa and Mexico. But I don't know if a white work van would be worth it but they are usually not too many years old and cost a lot when purchased new.

So this past Sunday morning, my son-in-law's work van went missing from the driveway next to his house. Thieves got it around 4:00AM. He checked the GPS, tracked it over to a mall a couple of miles away. After that, no record so I guess the thieves quickly figured out and disabled the GPS. He found some papers and a plastic bucket from the van, that was it.
 
Sadly yes, any vehicle like this is always a tempting target. Most thefts from vehicles are dopers looking for anything they can make a quick buck off. So of course anything that says "work vehicle" is of course tempting. Sounds like this one was more of a semi pro if they knew to disable the GPS. Sadly this is as bad as it is because when caught the thieves are seldom made to feel pain for the crime.
 
A lot of vehicles are stolen for parts, especially body parts, sometimes mechanical parts if a given part (like say the transmission) is in demand. Sometimes vehicles are stolen to commit a crime - cargo vehicles especially - they commit the crime, haul away whatever to wherever, then dump the vehicle when they are done with it - those kind of vehicle thefts usually are done and over with in a few hours because they don't want to be stopped in a stolen vehicle after robbing some business/etc.
 
I would think you could have settings on the onboard computer interfaced with the GPS, and you would be able to activate a GPS fence that would shut down the engine if the unit was moved outside the GPS fence. This type of stuff has been around a while.

If I had commercial trucks now I would have good quality dash cams, GPS /LoJack type software with fencing abilitys as well on every vehicle I owned. We had to rent containers to put the smaller units in since the local sh*t heads would steal hydraulic hoses and anything else on them they could.
 
I would think you could have settings on the onboard computer interfaced with the GPS, and you would be able to activate a GPS fence that would shut down the engine if the unit was moved outside the GPS fence. This type of stuff has been around a while.

If I had commercial trucks now I would have good quality dash cams, GPS /LoJack type software with fencing abilitys as well on every vehicle I owned. We had to rent containers to put the smaller units in since the local sh*t heads would steal hydraulic hoses and anything else on them they could.
Sadly the scum criminals do lead to entire new industries to try to defeat the little scum. I would say removing a finger at each time they are caught would be cheaper and more effective :cool:
 
I have low-jak on my Sprinter, plus, I went old school and installed a master power disconnect that is very well hidden, so short of towing it, ain't gonna steal it! I don't keep anything of value in it, and keep it parked in a well lit area!
 
Big, white van with ladders on top. Might as well have a sign on the side that says, "Steal me." Scummers came right up next to the house to steal it. Parking it inside would give much more security and much less visibility. My son-in-law has a steel building out back plenty big enough to park it in, plus an iron gate across the driveway. He's too lazy to do that, he'd have to move a car to get to it, have to clean garage out some (lots of stuff in there not even worth storing). I guess most of that stuff is so worthless, it's not even worth hauling to the dump! Space is valuable. My dad used to rent garages to store his extra vehicles in, paid $15 to $20 a month per stall. I'll bet it's way more than that now for such rentals.
 
Sadly the scum criminals do lead to entire new industries to try to defeat the little scum. I would say removing a finger at each time they are caught would be cheaper and more effective :cool:
Why stop at fingers? The Saudis remove the whole hand on the first offense. Makes for a really low recidivism rate... :)
 
One might also ask, "Why not?" in certain cases...

Having spent a year among those "back-stabbing pricks", I can confirm that many (certainly not all) behave as you suggest.
However, the country actually does have a very low crime recidivism rate, as I stated.
 
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If the thieves were smart enough to disable the GPS, then they're probably going to use the van in another heist, as those white commercial vans are as non descript as they get and fit in anywhere.
 
No one is suggesting that every crime is punishable by the same sentence to the same degree. Certain recidivists may just require the taste of much correction.
 
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So, death penalty for grand theft?

And what's a doughnut thief? Serious question. Never heard the term before. Have heard of oxygen thieves. Not sure if/how that relates.
 
Big, white van with ladders on top. Might as well have a sign on the side that says, "Steal me." Scummers came right up next to the house to steal it. Parking it inside would give much more security and much less visibility. My son-in-law has a steel building out back plenty big enough to park it in, plus an iron gate across the driveway. He's too lazy to do that, he'd have to move a car to get to it, have to clean garage out some (lots of stuff in there not even worth storing). I guess most of that stuff is so worthless, it's not even worth hauling to the dump! Space is valuable. My dad used to rent garages to store his extra vehicles in, paid $15 to $20 a month per stall. I'll bet it's way more than that now for such rentals.

I talked with a guy about a storage garage for rent it was 200 bucks a month.

There were some trash a couple years ago in sw wash cutting the side panel out of work vans with a portible oxy set up to steal the tools .right in the driveways.
 
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Why stop at fingers? The Saudis remove the whole hand on the first offense. Makes for a really low recidivism rate... :)
Why would we want to emulate those back stabbing pricks?
One might also ask, "Why not?" in certain cases...

Having spent a year among those "back-stabbing pricks", I can confirm that many (certainly not all) behave as you suggest.
However, the country actually does have a very low crime recidivism rate, as I stated.

It doesn't sound like the Saudi's "need a hand" in keeping the crime rate low.

;):D
 
That sucks. Were most of the tools/supplies his own or company owned?

When I used to do pipeline survey we had work trucks with locking canopies full of about 100k worth of equipment. Motel to motel it was sketchy. Some places we had to unload the whole truck into the motel room - or at least all of the expensive stuff. One time we had a 30ft boat hitched up and they took the damn thing in the middle of the night. Police found it weeks later parked behind a small oyster outfit that had been in trouble before for harvesting out of other peoples oyster beds.
 

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