News Crime
GPS theft is finally being tackled broadly
The theft of (RTK) GPS systems and other electronics in tractors and machines is increasing. The damage is now in the millions and not only the Netherlands is affected. Europol is going on a quest in several EU countries.
The Dutch police have called in Europol to track down the criminals, NOS reports. Despite the fact that the police have arrested a number of GPS thieves, agricultural and contracting companies continue to be ravaged by thefts. It is also striking that almost nothing of the large amount of stolen systems is recovered and that almost all brands are included.
Since 2014
The NOS spreekt about 200 reports of theft since April last year. That is quickly converted to €1,9 million for the screens alone. In the month of June alone, there were 30 declarations. Flevoland and the east of the Netherlands were startled several times at the time, but in fact every province was affected to a greater or lesser extent. In 2014, it was reported for the first time done of GPS theft. Then on a relatively small scale. Time and again some systems were stolen and almost never recovered. However, the number of thefts has increased sharply in the past 2 years.
The criminals travel around and also visit other European countries, although the number of thefts is lower there. Probably partly because the 'GPS density' is simply lower. Germany, France and the United Kingdom have been affected. Police believe the criminals drive around during the day to locate systems and then return at night to steal them. Dutch rental cars are used for this, although many photos of suspicious vans with a Swiss registration number have also surfaced.
2 million damage
At the beginning of July, the agricultural sector organization Cumela came with the news that in 2 years, more than 2 contractors had committed €40 million worth of GPS thefts. It therefore called on the national police and politicians to do more against this form of rural crime. Farmers and contractors are urged to always remove GPS systems from the vehicle and store them properly. Systems are also sometimes offered on websites for second-hand items, such as Ebay† The police asks that you report this. Cumela works together with the police in the Platform Safe Business East Netherlands to do something about the thefts.
Systems stay under the radar
In addition to the intensity and mobility of the criminals, it remains astonishing that so few of the stolen systems are located. Trimble importer Vantage Agrometius has only found a system once since 2014, which turned out to be sold second-hand in England. It is therefore generally accepted that thieves are after valuable metals in the screens. However, its value is very low. Certainly the rtk gps systems always have to connect to a server before use, whereby the location is passed on. This was not the case with John Deere, which is why this brand enjoyed an unpleasant popularity. However, the manufacturer soon came up with a software update that blocks the system with a pin code. In addition to the display of GPS systems, control terminals for tractors and self-propelled (harvesting) machines are also popular with the thieves' guild. They are often surprisingly neatly disassembled.
Niels van der Boom
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