NER and NICB Release 2011 Heavy Equipment Theft Report

January 1, 2011 / 3 min read

JERSEY CITY, N.J., and DES PLAINES, Ill., August 22, 2012 — The National Equipment Register (NER), a division of Verisk Crime Analytics, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) today released their national report on 2011 heavy-equipment theft. This year’s report continues to focus on what types of equipment are most likely to be stolen and recovered and where in the country thefts and recoveries occur. The report’s objective is to help provide equipment owners, insurance companies, and law enforcement personnel with information that can be used to help allocate investigative resources and influence theft prevention efforts.

The report draws on data from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), the NICB, and NER to provide a comprehensive analysis of heavy-equipment theft during the year. In 2011, the NCIC received 11,705 theft reports. In descending order, the five states with the most incidents of heavy-equipment theft were Texas, North Carolina, Florida, California, and Georgia. Together, those five states accounted for 40 percent of total equipment theft. Rounding out the top ten were Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Missouri. The top ten states accounted for 59 percent of all thefts.

In 2011, 21 percent of heavy equipment stolen was recovered.

“The economic downturn has put financial pressure on equipment owners who have to be more careful than ever to invest in the right theft-prevention technologies and processes in the right places. The heavy equipment theft report allows them to do that,” said David Shillingford, president of Verisk Crime Analytics.

Jim Schweitzer, chief operations officer at NICB, added, “The data provided by the report helps everyone involved with reducing thefts and recovering stolen loads work more efficiently and smarter, maximizing the resources that are available during a time when state budgets and police resources are limited.”

The 2011 Heavy Equipment Theft Report can be downloaded by visiting http://www.ner.net/annual-theft-report.html.

About the National Insurance Crime Bureau
Headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., the NICB is the nation’s leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to preventing, detecting, and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through data analytics, investigations, training, legislative advocacy, and public awareness. The NICB is supported by more than 1,100 property and casualty insurance companies and self-insured organizations. NICB member companies wrote more than $339 billion in insurance premiums in 2011, or approximately 80 percent of the nation’s property/casualty insurance. That includes more than 94 percent ($156 billion) of the nation’s personal auto insurance. To learn more visit www.nicb.org.

About National Equipment Register
A division of the Verisk Crime Analytics unit at Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK), National Equipment Register (NER) helps equipment owners manage equipment risks. Since 2001, NER has helped thousands of equipment owners and their insurers deter theft and has enabled law enforcement to recover millions of dollars of stolen equipment through HELPtech®, a national equipment marking and registration program. In 2009, NER launched IRONcheck®, a machine-history search for used-equipment buyers. In 2011, NER launched IRONwatch, a no-monthly-fee GPS tracking and recovery device for mobile assets. NER’s data management skills and equipment expertise are also used by fleets to support compliance with new regulations. For more information, contact NER at 201-469-2030 or at info@nerusa.com.You can visit the NER website at www.NER.net.

Contact:

Erica Helton
MWW Group (for NER)
201-507-9500
ehelton@mww.com

Giuseppe Barone
MWW Group (for NER)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com

Frank Scafidi
NICB
916-979-1510
fscafidi@nicb.org