Takeuchi Loader Stolen from Construction Site in Baton Rouge — Recovered Minutes Later, Undamaged
- February 28, 2012
- recovery stories
On January 19, 2012, the foreman of a construction company discovered a 2010 Takeuchi TL-250 loader missing from his work site. He had reported the theft of the equipment’s keys a few days earlier. He immediately reported the equipment theft to the Baton Rouge Police Department. After gathering all of the pertinent information, the police agency entered the loader’s information into the nationwide law enforcement stolen vehicle computer system. This routine action automatically activated the LoJack transponder concealed in the loader. Neither the owners nor law enforcement had to do anything else to activate the LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery Network, because LoJack’s interface with law enforcement is both seamless and instantaneous.
13 minutes later, a K-9 unit of the Baton Rouge Police Department on patrol received the silent LoJack signals from the stolen loader on the LoJack Police Tracking Computers (PTC) installed in their patrol car. The officers then queried the LoJack “Reply Code” appearing on the PTC display screens with the police stolen vehicle computer system and received confirmation that the signal was coming from the Takeuchi loader reported stolen minutes earlier. Following the directional and signal strength information on the PTC, the officers located the loader minutes later, hidden in the rear yard of an abandoned residence about a half a mile from where it was stolen. The Takeuchi Loader was recovered in good shape, with keys in the unit. It was turned over to the foreman on the scene.
The LoJack Vehicle Recovery System was installed in the equipment at the request of United Rentals in June 2000.