The curious case of the missing generator

Hey guys,

I work for a really large telecommunications company in the power systems department. We maintain generators, and all sorts of AC/DC power equipment. Among our duties we also maintain a pretty decent sized fleet of portable generators. Mostly small sized stuff like 60KW, but also some 100KW,150,250,500, and 1Meg sets as well. We can tow the small 60KW sets with our 3/4 ton vans, and leave a few at our locations in case of emergency with our permanent gensets.

Around Jan of this year my co-worker called me saying the 60KW he had stored behind one of our locations was missing. He had seen it the previous day, but now it was gone. I asked if he had our boss check the GPS system to find its location. Yes we had GPS on 95% of the portables after having one stolen in Rhode Island a few years ago(A big 350KW at that). This particular genset we knew had a GPS, and unlike some of our other sets that aren't plugged in to keep the batteries charged, and block warm should have been active as the start batteries were hooked up. I still don't know why they didn't install some sort of system that keeps the GPS active on its own power no matter what happens to the start batteries.

My co-worker contacted the local police after talking with our boss, and finding its last know coordinates about a mile or so from the location it was stored. My co-worker then took a drive by the last know location, and noticed a property that had lots of scrape metal, and salvage stuff present. Seemed like a good place to make it disappear. We provided the police with this info and even pulled it up on their computer system at the station. As far as we know they never went by to check it out as we hadn't heard anything about it until today. Last week my co-worker went by the police station to inquire about it as it had been a long time, and wanted a copy of the police report for our boss.

Out of the blue today he my co-worker got a call from the police saying that they think they found the generator. The story is that a local cranberry grower found it on his property in a temporary tent style garage. The police told my co-worker that they would haul it to us and then we could identify it even though when they emailed a pic to my co-worker he said yes it was our generator. The police showed up with the local harbor master(no idea why) and a guy with a blue pickup truck hauling it. They had my c0-worker look it over, and verify the serial number.

The police said to my co-worker that he wanted to introduce him to the guy who found it(pick up guy) and thank him for finding it. He said he didn't want any stolen goods on his property. The genset was complete with all the copper cables, and the battery was even still fully charged. The only thing different was the GPS had been removed, and all the stickers that had our company name, and unit number had been removed. Pick up guy said that we should put GPS on our generators in the future to which my co-worker replied we did. Pick up guy asked if it had showed it moved. My co-worker said yeah its last know location was xyz address to which pick up guy looked a bit strange about. Turns out when we drove by the last know location about a half hour later the same blue pick up was parked there in the driveway. Coincidence?

We have had a really bad winter, and I think a cranberry grower would at least notice tire marks in the snow to where the generator was "stored". Does this sound fishy to you? I think maybe pick up guy/cranberry grower had friends in the department, and they told him that he had better return it. How else do you describe that the last place the GPS shows it being is the place where the guy lives that "found" it? Also it seems weird that it was found in a structure, and may have even had the battery charger plugged in as the battery was still fresh. When we keep them stored without being plugged in the battery will usually be dead in a few weeks(but then again that could be due to the GPS that was now missing on this unit). Still strange that we knew where it was last, and the police didn't seem to care to look, and then two months later it is "found" at that same place or at least close by.

Curious eh?

Has the weather since warmed up resulting in less need for the farmer to have the generator?

Meh, could be as you suspect. Could be lazy incompetent cops. His funny look may be a case of not understanding why the cops did nothing.

We've had stolen cars dumped around here and the cops refuse to get involved.

Don't yout think the cranberry grower could have stopped by the ask the guys what was going on? Although who stores generators on other peoples property inside tents? Maybe they sold it to him for a good deal.

Equipment theft is a big business. Most thieves are hip to the fact that high dollar equipment usually has a GPS tracker in it now. They will often do a test move and move the machinery to a neutral location for a time before disappearing it for good.

Blue pickup man was probably your thief, or a friend / accomplice of the thief.

If blue pickup guy is the thief why would he return it?

JohnRW1621 wrote: Has the weather since warmed up resulting in less need for the farmer to have the generator?

It is slightly warmer around here lately. The funny thing is that the genset is set up as a 120 /208 three phase system and I doubt many farmers would be using this sort of power. It is reconfigurable to 120 /240 single phase but it wasn't changed and the lock on the switch wasn't cut unlike all the other locks.

Chris

Blue PU would return it because last week coworker went by the PoPo to see what was happening with the "investigation." PoPo actually did something this time and, "Ohhh, THAT generator. Dunno how it got there. Just showed up one day...."

In reply to Mazdax605:

Why would his truck turn up at the last known GPS location? I'll answerable my own question, maybe he isn't really the guy but he knows them shady people in the yard full of scrap metal . He was stopping by to say hey friend / cousin / brother-in-law, keep your stolen crap off my property.

Fishy. Sounds to me like the police know the guy and were protecting him.

If these guys know about the GPS trackers, you'd think they would use short-range GPS & cell jammers to disable the trackers and then remove them at their own leisure.

Actually now that I think of it, an all-wifi tracker could be possible...better jam wifi too.

Several of you guys seem to think the cops give a E36 M3 about property crime. I have found that to be false.

Your situation stinks to high heaven. There is nothing worth doing about it, other than to make sure the GPS units are hidden better.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Several of you guys seem to think the cops give a E36 M3 about property crime. I have found that to be false. Your situation stinks to high heaven. There is nothing worth doing about it, other than to make sure the GPS units are hidden better.

This. Solving a crime doesn't bring in any revenue and it takes time that they could be setting up a speed trap. I have had 2 cars stolen, they only showed up to take a report of one. That was because it was stolen from a retail parking lot.

In a previous neighborhood, there was a long going issue of cars being vandalized (probably kids). They would take a report over the phone and that was the end of it. You would get a report number for your insurance, but nothing else happened. That is until one of the cars that got hit was owned by a local officer. The next day everyone who had reported damage had an office stop by actually asking questions and legitimately looking like they were trying to find the vandal. Only after one of their own was hit.

I'm thinking blue pickup guy might of bought it from "salvage guy" after salvage guy ripped the GPS out of it?

Maybe he went back to get his money back?

But yeah - somebody tipped him off that it was stolen.

foxtrapper wrote: Meh, could be as you suspect. Could be lazy incompetent cops. His funny look may be a case of not understanding why the cops did nothing. We've had stolen cars dumped around here and the cops refuse to get involved.

This made me think of Schultz on Hogans Heroes. "I know nothing"