By following all the industry guidelines, nationwide survey company Survey Solutions is sending out a strong message to equipment thieves: ‘If you steal from us, we will pursue every angle to reclaim that instrument.’ The result is a Trimble S5 Total Station tracked and recovered from Poland.
Whilst survey equipment theft remains rife as recently reported by The Survey Association in one of its regular updates, on a more encouraging front, an instrument stolen from Survey Solutions has been reclaimed from Warsaw in Poland.
For Survey Solutions’ Survey Manager, Reece Maycey, the tracking and recovery of this instrument has proved to be a satisfying experience and one that throws some light on what happens when a piece of equipment is stolen:
“Our company has experienced instrument theft in the past and we have several cases currently under investigation. However, this time, our efforts have led to a successful outcome and the experience of dealing with the relevant parties in the recovery of the instrument have been extremely positive starting with a receptive response from the local police through to the help we’ve received from TSA, DeterTech and the UK Police Task Force that deals with construction and agricultural equipment theft.”
Whilst Survey Solutions protects its equipment in a number of ways (including the use of Trimble’s Sentinel real-time device tracking solution and padlocks and cables) and ensures that all its surveyors are aware that remaining safe during a theft is the number one priority, inevitably incidents still occur. In this case, the KOREC supplied Trimble S5 Total Station was stolen from the roadside in a quiet dead-end street in East London whilst the surveyors were 50-60m away.
The local police were immediately alerted and at the same time, Reece used the Trimble Sentinel app to track the instrument’s movement in real-time. The tracking positions led to a nearby block of flats and although the police were on the scene promptly, it was impossible to pinpoint which flat the instrument was stored in.
Significant progress
However, three weeks later, the signal became active again allowing Reece to track its movement around the Warsaw area and at this stage significant progress was made. Through TSA, Survey Solutions were put in touch with the intelligence-led security solutions company DeterTech (formerly SmartWater), who work in alliance with TSA to coordinate a response to thieves who persistently target surveyors.
Reece was able to provide DeterTech with full details on the instrument, its serial number, type etc to identify it along with real-time positions in Warsaw where its frequent movement indicated it was being used on regular surveys in the area. DeterTech worked in conjunction with a police officer on the UK task force specialising in organised crime of the theft of construction and agricultural equipment who liaised with police in Poland.
The instrument was recovered by Polish police and is now in the possession of Survey Solutions’ insurance company.
For Reece Maycey, the success of this recovery underlines how important it is to collaborate with industry partners to provide the information that enables not just the recovery of instruments but the avoidance of theft in the first place. This can be assisted through the sharing of information and vigilant business practices that include being alert to unusual vehicle behaviour around a site and being prepared to bring in security in ‘hot spot’ theft areas that can be identified with TSA information.
TSA advice on keeping your equipment safe
About Sentinel: Protect your Trimble Total Stations in the field:
- Trimble Sentinel is app based. If your instrument is stolen, it can be tracked immediately from the field.
- Trimble Sentinel uses the 4G network and locations can be pinged via any available mobile network
- Trimble Sentinel is retro fitted inside the Trimble Total Station and cannot ‘just be taken off’. It also has its own internal battery – charged during general instrument use, it will continue to ping signals for a period of time. In the event of a theft, call KOREC and we will talk you through best practice to ensure you can track this signal for as long as possible.
Sentinel is available as an after-market add-on for Trimble S Series and C5 instruments. Its usefulness goes far beyond retrieving missing instruments. It can help you find teams in the field at any given time. It also contains a G-force sensor that sends alerts to users to check instruments for calibration errors or damage when they’ve been dropped or have endured a rough ride…And remember, the Sentinel tracking module is installed inside the total station by KOREC, an authorised Trimble Service Provider.
Download the Sentinel PDF here
For more information on Sentinel, please call your regional KOREC consultant or contact us here.
The three little words that enabled Storm Geomatics to recover its entire fleet of survey instruments within 4 hours of the theft.
Despite a break in that occurred on Saturday night at 10.30 pm, the company was fully operational on Monday morning at 7.00am thanks to CCTV, Trimble’s Sentinel Solution, a fast Police response and some hard work from the Storm team that saw all the recovered instruments checked and recalibrated over the weekend.
Whilst instrument theft continues to be a problem in our profession, it is always rewarding to hear from companies such as Storm Geomatics that thieving from premises can be reacted to quickly and effectively and that investment in technology is part of the solution.
Theft Timeline
10.30pm: CCTV monitoring the Storm premises picked up unusual activity alerting the monitoring company who called the police and Storm Geomatics Managing Director, Mike Hopkins.
10.37pm: Smoke is released in the building and the thieves leave with stolen equipment escaping through a hedge and setting off on foot across fields.
10.47pm: Mike Hopkins arrives on site along with the Police and a tracker dog which picks up a scent but cannot located the thieves. Further police attend the scene in an attempt to find the panicked thieves.
12.45am: Mike contacts Storm Operations Director Anthony Pritchard who logs into the Trimble Sentinel app to see if one of the chipped Trimble Total Stations can be tracked
12.55am: Lat/Lon reference shows the position of the stolen goods with a time stamp of 12:51am. The lat/lon is converted to a What3words reference and given to the police.
01:30am: A police dog team go straight to the equipment using the What3Words reference – it is found in a wheelbarrow in a hedge, abandoned. Four total stations, one SX10, two controllers, two R12 GNSS units, a level and other survey accessories. The yellow boxes were discarded.
2.10am: The stolen instruments are handled with gloves, placed in the back of a Landrover and returned to a safe place.
Our thanks to Polly Hopkins of Storm Geomatics for sharing this timely reminder on how instrument thieves can strike at any time. She explains, “There’s no doubt that this was a planned operation with the thieves arriving with an angle grinder to cut through the wall of the building and attempts to remove the external CCTV cameras.
“In this case, our investment in security measures has paid off 100%. The police could not have been more responsive and in a particularly busy period for us, our customers were completely unaffected – on Monday morning by 7.00am all our instruments had been checked, calibrated and ready to go.”
Protect your Equipment in the Field
Sentinel is available as an after-market add-on for Trimble S Series and C5 instruments. Its usefulness goes far beyond retrieving missing instruments. It can help you find teams in the field at any given time. It also contains a G-force sensor that sends alerts to users to check instruments for calibration errors or damage when they’ve been dropped or have endured a rough ride.
Contact us;
Call UK Sales: 0345 603 1214
Call Ireland Sales: 01 456 4702
For anything else, view our contact page.
Survey companies across the UK have been consistently targeted by thieves so it was good to see a TSA session hosted by TSA Council Member and Member and Managing Director of Atlantic Geomatics, Oliver Viney. This session brought together a panel to discuss the latest initiatives, share success stories and inform everyone involved of recent developments. Although the police representative, Tom Harding, Chief Superintendent, West Mercia Police, was unable to make it for operational reasons, the discussion was lively and informative. Thefts are slightly down on last year and this is partly attributed to the arrest of a prominent gang at the end of 2018 and also to the arrival of more deterrents from both manufacturers and the likes of SmartWater (liquid marking/intelligence portal) and Datatag ID (multi-layered tagging and registration).
In 2018 TSA and SmartWater formed an alliance to deliver detailed analysis and police follow-up on every incident of equipment theft. The alliance is sponsored by Trimble, Topcon and Leica Geosystems. However, a show of hands from those attending the session illustrated a key area for improvement. Whilst many victims of instrument theft informed the manufacturer, only a low percentage informed SmartWater.
This is very detrimental to the proposal of any police operation because SmartWater needs to supply evidence of crime hotspots or ‘clusters’ for police engagement in operations such as planted instruments. Unfortunately, GDPR prevents manufacturers and SmartWater sharing information so it’s VITAL that any thefts are also reported to SmartWater via TSA – see side box. Other advice includes the suggestion that every company should have a stolen equipment policy in place with details on who to contact and what information is required.
Finally, TSA urges everyone to remember personal safety comes first! A free Briefing Note on Theft Mitigation Measures and accompanying A4 Poster can be downloaded at https://www.tsa-uk.org.uk/downloads/
The panel included Chair Oliver Viney (TSA Council Member and Managing Director of Atlantic Geomatics), Ian Pennington (Trimble), John Fraser (Hexagon Geosystems), Simon Crowhen (Topcon Positioning), Rachael Oakley SmartWater, Dave Luscombe (Datatag ID) and Andy Barton (Jelf Insurance Brokers).
In the event of a theft or attempted theft:
TSA has an official agreement with SmartWater for the reporting of ALL survey equipment theft, or attempted theft. This can be done directly through TSA’s website. SmartWater works closely with the police to ensure every incident of survey equipment theft receives detailed analysis and follow-up.
1 Follow the link www.tsa-uk.org.uk/equipment-theft
2 Download the incident form.
3 Complete the spreadsheet, including as much detail as possible.
4 Send, together with any supporting information such as photos
or videos, to donotreplyanalysts@smartwater.com
The February issue of CES magazine sees the publication of the full version of Alan Browne’s article on instrument theft and its consequences. This is a problem that is blighting our industry and its good to see it highlighted in CES.
Read Alan’s full article here
