What do you do to prevent theft?

[Steve]

What kinds of things do you do or do you want to do to prevent theft? Can you imagine if your truck and trailer were stolen with all of your equipment? How would you handle that situation? What do you do to prevent that from happening? Grinch pays a call on local businessman - The Grinch, not Santa, made an early stop at Ray Davis’ home along Cliffdale Road (in Fayetteville N.C.) on Dec. 22 and stole his Ford pickup and attached trailer. “They took 20 years of my life,” says, Davis, 59, who owns a lawn care business. All of his equipment was in the trailer. “They knocked out the glass in the back window,” he says. “Then they knocked out the key cylinder and cranked the truck with a screwdriver. You can learn how to do it on the Internet.” The truck, Davis, says, was valued at $7,650. A new one, he says, will cost $12,000. The lawn equipment, which Davis says included a $8,000 tractor and a $2,000 vacuum unit, was worth about $20,000. He says it will cost him $30,000 to replace it. The crab-red-colored truck is a 2007 Ford Dooley. Police are investigating. If you see what you think is the truck, you may want to call Davis at 978-3034.

__________________
- Subscribe to my Lawn Care Marketing Blog Feed and get daily tips sent to you. Free!
Download your Free trial of Gopher Lawn Care Software.

Lawn care business tips

I just keep everything locked up in my garage. = )

[Steve]

Good!

Does anyone else have thoughts on this?

Do you have alarms on your truck or trailer?

There was a rash of lawn care landscape business being hit in my area all summer long, as like Steve posted one guy had his rig stolen from his driveway in the middle of the day, reports where he had stopped home for luch and while he was inside someone stoled his rig. A friend of mine had a 2 gators stolen and another had a bobcat. So I lock up everything, all my samll equipment is locked even on the trailer it only takes a second to unlock it for use and lock it back when not. It only takes a second for some joker to walk by your trailer while your in the store paying for drinks and gas to snag a trimmer or blower or even both and off they go. This could runin a good day and make a bad day worste.

They caught the biggest theif he had stolen something like 20+ skidsteers and equipment of this nature, the dummy was selling them out of his back yard, and how he got caught was even funnier, he ran a stop sign and as the officer pulled him over and approched he told the officer the truck he was in was stolen, you can guess what happen next.

Keep you equipment out of sight and it will be out of mind. Lock it up and if you cant store it somwhere inside then chain it down, buy axle locks, hitch locks, do whatever it takes, your equipment is your bread and butter.

[Little's]

I put everything in my garage except my mower. I lock it up in my trailer. Oh, I also have an 80 lb. Rednose Pit Bull that keeps people away. A couple of times I have forgotten to take my gas cans out of my trailer, and they came up missing.

Well, the truck is Jason's every-day driver.... so he keeps it with him... locked and alarmed... the trailer has a lock on the hitch receiver... We haven't had any problems yet... we're hoping to be in a warehouse somewhere in the next few months...

[Steve]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]Keep you equipment out of sight and it will be out of mind.

When you are talking about this, do you mean a lawn care operator should used an enclosed trailer or that when you park your equipment on your property, you should keep it out of site from the street? Or both?

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Team Gopher @ Jan. 06 2008,10:25)]When you are talking about this, do you mean a lawn care operator should used an enclosed trailer or that when you park your equipment on your property, you should keep it out of site from the street? Or both?

I think that has a lot to do with the area in which you live... is theft a problem for your particular community? Do you talk frequently to your neighbors? ...and what kind of response time does your local police department have?