ASPIRING THIEVES MEET STICKY END

Another machine is found in a nick of time with the help of KOMTRAX

A group of would-be thieves were literally stopped in their tracks about 30 kilometres from the site of their crime, thanks to Komatsu's advanced KOMTRAX system, Komatsu and a healthy dose of Mother Nature.

When TRACC Civil's Komatsu wheel loader was stolen from Baldivis in Perth's southern suburbs, Brett Mitchell turned to his local Komatsu dealer to locate his missing machinery.

"I got a call from my guys who were at the council machinery yard in Baldivis; they said "the entire fence had been torn down and that our Komatsu WA320PZ-6 Wheel Loader was gone,"

"The thieves knew what they were after and how to get it somewhere around three in the morning, they shifted a number of machines out of the way to get to our loader, then drove it straight out of the council yard, right through the fence.

"I called Komatsu straight away; they tracked the machine, plotted its location on Google Maps for me and emailed me its coordinates. When I got the email with the loader's location, I saw that it was in Oakford, not too far away from where it was stolen," he said.

Mr Mitchell went to the location provided by Komatsu's KOMTRAX System Administrator, Mary Jo O'Donovan only to find the thieves unloading generator sets and machinery.

Recognising the parts as his property, Mr Mitchell took photos of the licence plates of the vehicles and called the police to his location.

"The police had traced the thieves to their address, so I was free to keep hunting for my loader," he said.

"I had to go on foot because the ground was so wet and muddy, but eventually I found the loader in a nature strip, bogged up to the top of the wheels.

"The thieves had tried to ford the stream that runs through the nature strip, but they'd clearly underestimated the impact of the recent rain the whole valley had become a swamp.

"Some water had gone into a breather hose, so we had to drain it back out, plus the thieves broke a few panels in the cab in order to hotwire the unit, but it wasn't too bad, considering that if they'd succeeded, it'd just be disassembled parts now.

"I have to say that any machine I buy from now on will definitely be fitted with the KOMTRAX system!"

TRACC Civil was established in 2011 to service demand for civil construction and engineering projects in Western Australia, including construction of major housing estates, airports, golf courses and arterial roads.

Komatsu's KOMTRAX system is fitted as standard on a wide range of Komatsu construction and excavation equipment, including wheel loaders, excavators and utility machines.