GPS beacon leads deputies to stolen equipment

Issue Date: October 24, 2007

By Christine Souza
Assistant Editor

Responding to a GPS signal from a stolen tractor, Fresno County Sheriff's Department detectives went to a farm near Firebaugh where they discovered several stolen tractors lined up next to each other in a remote field.

With help from a tractor's factory-installed global positioning system, detectives from the Fresno County Sheriff's Department Ag Task Force recovered about $800,000 worth of farm equipment, including eight tractors. And just days following this first recovery, officers investigated two additional and separate instances of farm equipment theft, bringing their property recovery total to more than $1 million.

"This is the biggest recovery in our unit's history and we recovered all of this equipment in an 11-day period," said Sgt. Mark Bray of the Fresno County Sheriff's Department Ag Task Force. "It took us a little bit of time to verify the owners, but once we did obviously they were very pleased to get their equipment back."

On Sept. 17 the Fresno County Sheriff's Department dispatch center sent Bray and his team of rural crime detectives to northwestern Fresno County near Firebaugh to a John Deere tractor that had been reported stolen from San Benito County.

"The owner of the tractor, which was equipped with a factory-installed GPS system, had tracked it to the location. When one of our patrol deputies and two of my detectives went out to investigate, they found a row of eight tractors lined up next to each other," Bray said. "It was such an isolated area that if that farmer didn't have the GPS system on this tractor, it would have been real hard for us to find."

The eight tractors found at the property were reported stolen predominantly from Monterey County and one backhoe was reported stolen from Merced County.

"The detectives began running property identification numbers. The suspect had switched PINs on a couple pieces of equipment and either glued them on or did a real bad job of affixing them to where the actual PIN plate was," Bray said.

The Ag Task Force worked with the National Equipment Register, a database of stolen equipment, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau, to identify the pieces of equipment. Victims were either farmers or those involved in the construction business. A ninth victim was located after Bray recovered three commercial-size welders on the property.

The Fresno County Sheriff's Department arrested a Salinas man who was charged with eight counts of vehicle theft and eight counts of receiving stolen property.

"The gentleman that owned the property near Firebaugh lives in Salinas and has a legitimate business as a truck driver. He was renting out the property and as it turned out he was also using it to store stolen property," Bray said.

The case led detectives to Monterey County where they retrieved evidence that tied the suspect to the stolen equipment and the location.

"If a farmer is going to do one thing to ensure the safety of his equipment, having a factory-installed GPS system or a LoJack tracking system would be a great help," Bray said. "Not only do these systems help us recover their equipment, but they have led us to a lot of other stolen equipment and that would be a big, big deterrent."

Brad Stover, a branch tactical marketing manager for John Deere, said that while the GPS installed in John Deere equipment is primarily designed to help growers with precision farming activities, it also works to recover stolen equipment.

"Basically, a lot of the GPS that we do is really designed around the use on the farm to do things like auto-steering, planting and spraying applications. It is not primarily for the purpose that it turned out to be in this case, but this is just more benefit of what growers have experienced because it can send out a beacon signal and say where it is." Stover said.

Stover added that new tractors can be purchased with the GPS feature or else it can be added at a later time.

When asked about the cost of GPS, Stover said, "Expensive is a relative term; if you spend a few thousand dollars and you get a $100,000 tractor back in return, I'd call that pretty nominal."

Danielle Rau, California Farm Bureau Federation director of rural crime prevention, said only 10 percent to 15 percent of heavy equipment that is reported stolen is ever recovered.

"When you consider that only about one in every 10 stolen pieces of equipment are ever recovered, it makes the work done by the Fresno County detectives in this case even more impressive and noteworthy," Rau said. "One reason for the low recovery rate is heavy equipment is difficult to identify and is most often used in remote locations. Use of GPS helps to eliminate some of these stumbling blocks."

One week following the recovery of the tractors in Firebaugh, detectives responded to a LoJack signal near Raisin City and Caruthers, where they ended up at a "chop shop" and recovered about $300,000 worth of tractors, trailers, welders and other equipment.

"We located the chop shop in the Raisin City/Caruthers area based on the LoJack hit, and as a result of our preliminary investigation, we recovered two pieces of stolen property from Kings County and two of their ag unit detectives responded to assist," Bray said.

Detectives arrested a Caruthers man who was charged with vehicle theft, possession of stolen property and operating a chop shop.

In the final recovery on Sept. 27, the Fresno County Ag Task Force recovered a Caterpillar backhoe and two diesel engines from a farm near Reedley.

"Our narcotics unit was out working a report of marijuana growing in an orange orchard near Orange Cove. They happened upon this tractor parked in the middle of the orchard," Bray said.

The detectives soon learned that the tractor was stolen from a farmer who lives about five miles from where it was recovered. No suspects have been found in that particular case.

"Within a week and a half we had three separate incidents that we investigated," Bray said. "Based on our experience in these types of cases, we believe the equipment is being re-sold or stripped and sent south of the border."

(Christine Souza is a reporter for Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item. Top