KOMTRAX Finds Stolen PC45MR-3 Mini

With 20 years' experience in construction, Matthew Nicolson of Nicolson Projects has a track record of getting things done right, and on time.

Suffering his second machine theft in two years in early May, the potential for inconvenience and downtime presented issues any business would want to avoid."We mainly do subdivisions, new car parks, drainage, also oval construction and green space work," Matthew explains.

The focus of the Nicolson Projects business is quality, safety and meeting client demand.

With a small fleet of a dozen machines, Nicolson Projects works its gear hard and rarely has the luxury of downtime.

When Matthew arrived on site in south-west Sydney on a Wednesday morning at 6:30am, he was greeted by an unwelcome space where his Komatsu PC45MR-3 mini-excavator had been parked the day before.

Having lost a vital piece of gear to thieves in 2015, Matthew was all too familiar with the sinking feeling.

"The machine is working nearly all the time. I mean, you have them because you're using them constantly. When something like this happens it can be a real inconvenience," Matthew said.

"It's terrible. If you have things insured you get there at the end of the day, but you always lose out."

Knowing the digger was KOMTRAX-equipped, Matthew phoned his Komatsu rep to see if anything could be done.

Relaying the information to the KOMTRAX command centre, the machine was pinged and located at an address 40 kilometres north of its last known location.

Narellan police were contacted with the information, and by 11am the excavator had been recovered by detectives. By late afternoon it was back on site, ready for the next day's work.

"Police staked out the house till the bloke came back and they arrested him. I was able to pick the machine up that afternoon; they came out and did forensics on it on site.

"The best part of it, at the end of the day, is that the bloke was arrested. Thieves are getting busted. If you can get that information out that they are getting caught, it acts as a deterrent."

The time between Matthew noticing the machine missing and recovery by law enforcement? Two-and-a-half hours.

The situation also worked out to be a win for a fortunate truck owner/driver.

"The bloke who stole it used a stolen truck to take the machine. Because of this situation the truck owner was able to get the truck back as well."

Matthew sees the theft as a subtle nod to Komatsu's quality and is happy to have the machine back in the fold working.

"I had six other machines; they had to go around all of them to steal the Komatsu.

"I was very pleased. It was my first experience with KOMTRAX and the machine was a good one so I am stoked to have it back," he said.

"My Positrack was stolen and never recovered. Komatsu had a signal straight away with a 100 per cent confirmed location to give to the police which they used to get the machine. The KOMTRAX team kept me informed through the process and it was a good result from a bad situation."