GEICO RESPONDS TO HAIL STORM WITH HELP FROM DOMINION GROUP

A violent hail storm pummeled the New York City Borough of Queens and western Long Island on Monday, August 1st for no more than an hour but that was plenty of time to destroy thousands of vehicles and homes. The baseball sized hail was responsible for damaging over ten thousand vehicles and even caused roof damage to many homes. Although most cars are still drivable some motorists lost windows and windshields to the freak storm.

In the anticipation of thousands of claims, Geico jumped to meet their customer’s needs. By Tuesday afternoon the insurance giant was setting up tents and flying in insurance adjusters from around the country to handle the thousands of expected claimants. The Geico corporate office located at 750 Woodbury Road, Woodbury, NY became a claims fair overnight. By Wednesday Geico started adjusting claims at 7am and continued until 9pm, finishing approximately 30 cars an hour. No insurance company on Long Island is putting on a display rivaling what Geico has accomplished here. The claims fair is set to continue this week with appointments starting at 7am. Safelite glass repair is also on site to ensure motorists leave with a drivable vehicle in a timely manner.

Although thousands of people have severely damaged vehicles, Dominion’s security team has been able to sustain a calm atmosphere around the adjusters and customers. Dominion’s head of security, Tom, has been at the site for most of the action. “The car owner’s have been extremely pleased with the service Geico is offering. We expected a higher level of tension given the situation but we just haven’t encountered it yet. Our guys are maintaining a relaxed posture and welcoming the customers with a smile but stay ready to diffuse a heated situation.” -Tom on the evaluation of the security at the Geico claims fair.

To hear more about Dominion Group’s success at Geico’s Woodbury location call 516-554-9823 or write to info@dominionsecure.com.

Geico customer service is standing by to take claims information and schedule appointments, visit geico.com or call 1-800-861-8380.

Online Dating Murder

Almost anyone with a working Internet connection knows the dangers and risks of meeting someone online. Still, it's hard to ignore the sparkling ads for sites like eHarmony.com, or the easy thrills of sites like Craigslist.

And we've heard the rules ad nauseum about navigating the tricky waters of online dating and meeting: Don't give out personal information. Have a friend on standby ready to come to the rescue. Don't get too serious. Don't say anything -- or respond to anything -- that could get you in trouble. And, as always, buyer beware.

But the murder of a Metro Detroit man is the latest in a string of online dating gone wrong. Is it easy to fall into a trap even when playing by the rules? Possibly. Here are seven online dating cases with varying circumstances, and varying degrees of tragedy.

1. In Southfield last weekend, 35-year-old West Bloomfield resident Venkata Cattamanchi arranged a date with 23-year-old Jessica Ermatinger of Canton, police say. After meeting at a restaurant, the pair traveled to a motel, where Cattamanchi was allegedly robbed and murdered by three men waiting there. Ermatinger and the three men were charged with murder and robbery.

2. In March, a Ferndale man was beaten and robbed by a man he met online and an accomplice. The two men are accused of tying him up, beating him with a hammer and a handgun, taking his ATM car and withdrawing money from his bank account. One of the men was dressed as a woman.

3. In December, a St. Clair Shores man set up a date with a woman he met through MySpace. While the pair were at dinner, the woman's accomplice cleaned out the man's apartment -- after she allegedly tipped him off via text message. They were charged with stealing $11,000 worth of the guy's stuff; she took a plea deal, he was sent to prison.

And outside of Metro Detroit...

4. In 2006, 28-year-old Michael Sandy of New York was killed after arranging a date through a gay chatroom. Sandy arranged to meet a man in a park, but instead was met with a group of men who robbed and beat him. While attempting to escape, Sandy was chased into traffic and hit by a car. Three men were sent to prison for his murder, while a fourth took a plea deal in exchange for testifying against them.

5. Also in New York, a New York woman who posted a Craigslist ad offering masseuse services was killed in a Boston hotel by a man who answered her ad. 28-year-old Julissa Brisman is thought to be the third victim of 24-year-old Philip Markoff, her alleged killer. Markoff is allegedly linked to the murders of two other women who posted ads on Craigslist. He is scheduled to go to trial next year.

6. Pretty much every episode of Chris Hansen's "To Catch a Predator."

7. In 2006, two teen girls in Florida set up a fake MySpace profile to lure men into robbing them. A 14-year-old and a 15-year-old girl met a man at an apartment who was "just lookin' for some fun," but robbed him at gunpoint. When police found them with another teen male accomplice, they retrieved two loaded handguns.

The number of incidents of violence in internet dating meetings is on the rise. Protecting yourself from internet predators needs to be a priority. Call Dominion Group to learn more.

Block Party Violence

Summer has long welcomed the Block Party atmosphere popular in most American neighborhoods. This suburban tradition lends to neighbors meeting and building a sense of community. Neighbors share in the cost and responsibilities of hosting such an event and often arrange for some type of entertainment. This is a great opportunity for people living on the same street to actually meet the people to their left and right. It is a time in which safety should not have to be a concern.

Unfortunately, safety always needs to be a concern, especially in today's world. Parents are afraid to let their children play in their own front yards. Hosting a party with no admission requirements potentially invites trouble. The mix of alcohol and the current economic status of most citizens only adds the to the possibility of violence.

On Friday night a shooting occurred at a block party near Jersey City. Although it is not clear exactly what triggered the incident it is evident that no security or medical personnel were on-site. Three young men were wounded in the shooting, one remains in critical condition.

Acts such as this can be avoided with the simple and low-cost actions involved in hiring a security professional such as Dominion Group Inc. Dominion provides an on-site survey to determine exactly what security needs you have. We then provide you a detailed proposal which allows you to customize our services based on your perceived threats and budget concerns. We pride ourselves in providing experienced and professional services capable of providing the services needed at a price you can afford.

Call Dominion today to design an affordable security solution for your next event. 516-554-9823

BURGLARY FACTS AND STATISTICS

WHAT IS CONSIDERED A BURGLARY…
Burglary is defined as the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft. The use of force to gain entry is not required to classify an offense as a burglary. Burglary is categorized into three sub classifications: forcible entry, unlawful entry where no force is used, and attempted forcible entry.

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report 2005

Burglary Facts and Statistics…

* Property crime makes up slightly more than three-quarters of all crime in the United States

* In 2005, law enforcement agencies reported an estimated 2,154,126 burglary offenses-a 0.5-percent increase compared with 2004 data.

* An examination of 5- and 10-year trends revealed a 1.8-percent increase in the number of burglaries compared with the 2001 estimate, and a 14.1-percent decline from the 1996 number.

* Burglary accounted for 21.2 percent of the estimated number of property crimes committed in 2005. The average dollar loss per burglary offense in 2005 was $1,725.

* Of all burglary offenses in 2005, 65.8 percent were of residential structures.

* Most (62.4 percent) of residential burglaries in 2005 for which time of occurrence was known took place during the day, between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

* Among burglaries of nonresidential structures when time of occurrence was known, 58.0 percent occurred at night.

* A burglary takes place in the U.S. every 14.6 seconds according to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program Crime Clock.

* According to the FBI Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January-June, 2006, “burglary offenses showed an increase, up 1.2 percent from the 2005 level.”

* Overall, in about 84% of all burglaries, the offender gained entry into the victim’s residence or other building on the property.

Source: Crime in the United States 2005 Department of Justice – Federal Bureau of Investigation Release Date: September 2006

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/

Where Burglars Enter a House…

One survey in Pennsylvania showed that 81 percent of residential intrusions occur through the first floor.

34 percent of burglars entered through the front door;

23 percent through a first-floor window;

22 percent through the back door;

9 percent through the garage;

4 percent entered through a basement;

4 percent through an unlocked entrance;

2 percent through a storage area;

and only 2 percent entered anywhere on the second floor.

A study in Connecticut showed that 12 percent of burglaries occurred through an UNLOCKED door and that in 41 percent of alarmed homes that were burglarized, the security system was not turned on.

Dominion Security is committed to protecting its clients both at home and while traveling. A free consultation will result in a protective detail customized to your needs and perceived threats. Contact info@dominionsecure.com today to find a security solution for your life.

Online Dating Safety

Safety in the online dating world is being urged in the wake of a case of sexual assault that all began with meeting on a popular internet dating web site.

A California woman has sued the online dating service Match.com, saying a man she met through the service sexually assaulted her.

Attorney Mark L. Webb, who represents the Los Angeles entertainment executive called "Jane Doe" in the suit, told the Los Angeles Times Wednesday he would ask a County Superior Court judge for a temporary injunction prohibiting Match.com from signing up more members until his client's demands are met.

Doe wants Match.com to conduct background checks on its clients and screen its members for sexual predators. The Web site said that is the responsibility of its clients.

"They are a very powerful and successful online dating service, and they have the means to do this," Webb said.

The woman said she met the man at a restaurant and that he appeared to be a gentleman. But after a second date, he allegedly followed her home and forced himself on her.

Doe went online after the attack and found her date allegedly had been convicted of several counts of sexual battery.

"This horrific ordeal completely blindsided me because I had considered myself savvy about online dating safety," the woman said in a statement released by her attorney. "Things quickly turned into a nightmare, beyond my control."

The Times said it was unable to get a comment from the Web site late Wednesday, but in a statement to a television station last week officials said they provide safety tips to clients on its Web site and that members are responsible for screening the people they meet.


provided by http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_8789.shtml


Dominion Group is dedicated to your safety. If you have any concerns you should contact via info@dominionsecure.com immediately. Our staff is ready to address your issues and develop a safe method for you to conduct your activities.

Internet Use and Safety

Age-based guidelines for kids' Internet use

If your children use the Internet at home, you already know how important it is to help protect them from inappropriate content and contact.

Windows Live Family Safety and the parental controls included in Windows 7 and Windows Vista can help you create a safer online environment for your children.

The American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP) helped Microsoft develop age-based guidance for Internet use with the family safety settings in both of these products. It's important to remember that these are guidelines only. You know your child best.

Up to age 10

Supervise your children until they are age 10. You can use Internet safety tools to limit access to content, websites, and activities, and be actively involved in your child's Internet use, but Microsoft recommends that you sit with your child when they use the Internet, until the age of 10.

Here are some safety tips to consider when you go online with your 2-10 year old:

1. It's never too early to foster open and positive communication with children. It's a good idea to talk with them about computers and to stay open to their questions and curiosity.
2. Always sit with your kids at this age when they're online.
3. Set clear rules for Internet use.
4. Insist that your children not share personal information such as their real name, address, phone number, or passwords with people they meet online.
5. If a site encourages kids to submit their names to personalize the web content, help your kids create online nicknames that don't give away personal information.
6. Use family safety tools to create appropriate profiles for each family member and to help filter the Internet.For more information, see Windows Live Family Safety, Windows 7 Parental Controls, or Windows Vista Parental Controls.
   
   Help protect your children from offensive pop-up windows by using the pop-up blocker that's built in to Internet Explorer.
7. All family members should act as role models for young children who are just starting to use the Internet.

Ages 11 to 14

Children this age are savvier about their Internet experience, but it's still a good idea to supervise and monitor their Internet use to help ensure they are not exposed to inappropriate materials. You can use Internet safety tools to limit access to content and websites and provide a report of Internet activities. Make sure children this age understand what personal information they should not give over the Internet.

When your kids are this age it might not be practical to physically supervise their Internet use at all times. You can use tools such asWindows Live Family Safety, Windows 7 Parental Controls, or Windows Vista Parental Controls.

Here are some safety tips to consider when you go online with your 11-14 year old:

1. It's a good idea to foster open and positive communication with your children. Talk with them about computers and stay open to their questions and curiosity.
2. Set clear rules for Internet use.
3. Insist that your children not share personal information such as their real name, address, phone number, or passwords with people they meet online.
4. If a site encourages kids to submit their names to personalize the web content, help your kids create online nicknames that give away no personal information.
5. Use family safety tools to create appropriate profiles for each family member and to help filter the Internet.For more information, see Windows Live Family Safety, Windows 7 Parental Controls, or Windows Vista Parental Controls.
6. Set family safety tools on the medium security setting, which should have some limitations on content, websites, and activities.
7. Keep Internet-connected computers in an open area where you can easily supervise your kids' activities.
8. Help protect your children from offensive pop-up windows by using the pop-up blocker that's built in to Internet Explorer.
9. Encourage your children to tell you if something or someone online makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened. Stay calm and remind your kids they are not in trouble for bringing something to your attention. Praise their behavior and encourage them to come to you again if the same thing happens.

Ages 15 to 18

Teens should have almost limitless access to content, websites, or activities. They are savvy about the Internet but they still need parents to remind them of appropriate safety guidelines. Parents should be available to help their teens understand inappropriate messages and avoid unsafe situations. It's a good idea for parents to remind teens what personal information should not be given over the Internet.

Here are some safety tips to consider as you guide your teens online:

1. Continue to keep family communication as open and positive about computers as you can. Keep talking about online lives, friends, and activities, just as you would about other friends and activities.Encourage your teens to tell you if something or someone online makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened. If you're a teen and something or someone online doesn't seem quite right, then speak up.
2. Create a list of Internet house rules as a family. Include the kinds of sites that are off limits, Internet hours, what information should not be shared online, and guidelines for communicating with others online, including social networking.
3. Keep Internet-connected computers in an open area and not in a teen's bedroom.
4. Investigate Internet-filtering tools (such as Windows Vista Parental Controls, Windows 7 Parental Controls, or Windows Live Family Safety) as a complement to parental supervision.
5. Help protect your children from offensive pop-up windows by using the pop-up blocker that's built in to Internet Explorer.
6. Know which websites your teens visit, and whom they talk to. Encourage them to use monitored chat rooms, and insist they stay in public chat room area.
7. Insist that they never agree to meet an online friend.
8. Teach your kids not to download programs, music, or files without your permission. File-sharing and taking text, images, or artwork from the web may infringe on copyright laws and can be illegal.
9. Talk to your teenagers about online adult content and pornography, and direct them to positive sites about health and sexuality.
10. Help protect them from spam. Tell your teens not to give out their email address online, not to respond to junk mail, and to use email filters.
11. Be aware of the websites that your teens frequent. Make sure your kids are not visiting sites with offensive content, or posting personal information. Be aware of the photos that teens post of themselves and their friends.
12. Teach your kids responsible, ethical, online behavior. They should not be using the Internet to spread gossip, bully, or threaten others.
13. Make sure your teens check with you before making financial transactions online, including ordering, buying, or selling items.
14. Discuss online gambling and its potential risks with your teens. Remind them that it is illegal for them to gamble online.
    
    This article provided by microsoft via http://www.microsoft.com/security/family-safety/childsafety-age.aspx

Dominion Group is dedicated to providing security in all aspects particularly when children are involved. To find more information about protecting your children when using the internet contact Dominion Group at info@dominionsecure.com

Law Enforcement Focuses on Construction Site Theft

Opportunity and value come together on construction job sites all across America and thieves are making the most of it. Stealing heavy equipment is a thriving crime.

The total value of stolen equipment each year in the United States is in the neighborhood of $300 million to $1 billion. The range is so large because of incomplete theft data, but any number you pick within that range represents a big problem.

The thefts are happening so often because construction equipment and machinery are relatively easy to steal and easy to get rid of in a shadowy worldwide market, including a black market. Furthermore, each piece of equipment generally carries a high profit margin for the successful thief.

If that isn’t incentive enough, thieves get help from the unlikeliest of quarters: the contractors they victimize. Because many heavy equipment owners and renters are not taking the steps they could to safeguard their equipment, they are benign accomplices in the thefts.

That sounds harsh, but law enforcement and insurance industry officials tend to agree on this point: equipment owners or renters are falling short of doing all they can to prevent theft.

"Productivity is king,” said David Shillingford, president of National Equipment Register (NER). “Contractors say, ‘I want equipment that I can use, that my employee can jump on and start up.’”

Because contractors want it that way, manufacturers provide it and thieves take advantage of it. An example is the nearly universal keys for machinery that are readily available.

More exclusive keying of individual pieces of equipment obviously would slow some thieves.

“It is unfair to criticize manufacturers,” Shillingford added. “They respond to the market.”

He said as long as safety and productivity are the top concerns of equipment buyers and operators, “security will remain lower down the list of features.”

This is not to say that reasonable precautions aren’t taken. But in the face of rapacious thievery, reasonable precautions evidently aren’t enough.

National Equipment Register was created five years ago in response to the epidemic of theft. Its role is to build a database of registered and stolen equipment. To that end, it has accumulated approximately 12 million ownership records and compiled a list of more than 70,000 reports of stolen construction and farm equipment. NER cross-references the two stacks of data to track down and recover stolen equipment. It works on this with the Insurance Service Office Inc. and such industrial partners as the Associated General Contractors of Americas (AGC), the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), the National Utility Contractors Association (NUCA) and the American Rental Association (ARA).

“We have recovered over $4 million in equipment,” Shillingford said. “Equipment that wouldn’t have been recovered otherwise.”

Recovery indeed is not the usual outcome when heavy equipment turns up missing. Slightly less than 10 percent of stolen machinery is returned to its owner.

Some 2,800 law enforcement agencies are using the NER data to help them solve crimes. Among these agencies is the police department of Canton Township, a suburb of Detroit, MI. The Canton Department of Public Safety sponsored a seminar earlier this month in partnership with adjacent Northville and Plymouth townships and the local CrimeStoppers organization.

The goal was to discuss and formulate “crime prevention strategies for worksites,” said Sgt. Scott Hilden. Hilden is in charge of Canton’s Crime Prevention Unit. Canton’s director of public safety, John Santomauro, asked for the program.

“We Nail Thieves” was the theme, which was effectively communicated in a poster distributed for public display. It warns that area authorities are serious about capturing and prosecuting anyone who steals from a job site. Construction thefts in Canton have declined slightly in recent years, but remain a major criminal activity.

Last year, the jurisdiction experienced 75 thefts totaling $278,000. Over the last five years, the loss figure is $1.5 million.

“That’s just the ones that are reported,” Hilden noted. Smaller equipment and materials losses frequently aren’t reported in Canton or anywhere else. It is considered too much trouble, an attitude perhaps strengthened by the low recovery rate.

Hilden and his fellow officers suggested ways equipment can be safeguarded. He invited to the PowerPoint seminar the contracting companies’ supervisory personnel. He wanted supervisors there because if the department’s suggestions are going to be implemented, someone with supervisory authority must do it.

Essentially, Hilden asked the contractors to assume more responsibility for their equipment. He said too many home builders, for instance, are almost casual about security.

“The thinking of many of the builders seems to be that they are going to lose a lot of equipment, so they’ll just make the houses more expensive to buy,” he said.

He hopes the seminar will discourage that attitude.

“A lot of the reason for the thefts is that they are a crime of opportunity,” he said. “Work sites are not patrolled, high value items are not locked up or put in safe places. There is no sense of security at the sites” after hours, which virtually invites thieves to try to steal something.

A variety of preventive measures were suggested. They include:

• Securing an equipment yard with chainlink fence, perhaps with barbed wire at the top;

• Hiring security guards to patrol a site;

• Lighting up the perimeter of a site overnight;

• Periodically checking job sites for unusual activity, especially on weekends;

• Using different types of locks and bars that can impede a thief from cranking up and driving away a piece of machinery.

If contractors follow these and other recommendations, Hilden is convinced thieves will have a harder time of it in Canton.

“If contractors will take this information and use it,” he said, “they are going to reduce the thefts on their sites. There is no question about that. I think the number of thefts will go down significantly.”

Far south from Canton, in Miami, FL, the Miami-Dade County Police Department is coming at the problem from two directions.

Unlike Michigan, Florida is a hotbed of equipment theft. It ranked fourth in 2004 in the frequency of such thefts, as ranked by NER. It was No. 3 the year before.

More ominous is that while Florida also was ranked third in 2003 in recovery of stolen items, in 2004 it dropped to No. 10 in recoveries. In other words, more stolen equipment in Florida is staying stolen.

Miami-Dade authorities established a task force in 1996 to deal with what is described as “cargo theft,” the expensive commodities that are stolen from warehouses and trailers. In 2003, such thefts in the county were in the $40 million range.

“Most of it was construction equipment,” Lt. Eddie Tetow, one of 25 people on the task force, said.

There is no mystery why south Florida has a generally high theft rate: The area has a constantly high volume of construction.

“The overriding factor [in one state having more thefts than another] is the amount of ‘targets’ available to thieves,” the NER’s 2004 report concludes. “Theft rates closely follow equipment volume; where there is more equipment, there usually is more theft.”

But there is another factor in the case of Miami-Dade: the port facilities.

“We’re a port city and the gateway to the Caribbean,” Tetow said, which helps explain why approximately 70 percent of equipment recovered by the police was stolen somewhere else.

As for the state’s falling recovery rate, the assumption of Tetow and fellow task force members is that some of the equipment is quickly being shipped overseas. Selling stolen machinery is relatively easy inside the country. The only reason thieves go to the trouble to export it, the NER report surmises, is because they can get more for the machinery somewhere else.

It should be noted equipment theft is not solely an American problem. Such thefts are calculated annually in the millions of euros across Europe. Australia is plagued by it. In many developing nations, the equipment of the developers is targeted.

A second economic crimes unit in the Miami-Dade agency also is assigned to follow up on heavy construction crimes: the auto theft unit. It is concerned with stolen vehicles, obviously, but also jumps on the trail of stolen boats, motorcycles and construction equipment. Lt. Greg Terp echoes Tetow about Miami being a destination for stolen machinery.

“You have to understand,” he said, “that a lot of the stuff we see coming through Miami is stolen elsewhere. We see a percentage of that going abroad.”

He wouldn’t speculate what that percentage might be. The department recently was contacted, for instance, by the Houston Police Department regarding stolen heavy equipment. On the other hand, Miami-Dade officers recently worked with authorities in Mississippi to recover equipment stolen from Dade County.

Industry leaders who wrestle with the stolen equipment crime wave recognize there must be several answers to reducing it. After all, law enforcement agencies are effective in preventing thievery and tracking down thieves, but they cannot be expected to solve it by themselves.

Law enforcement and court systems need the right tools to capture and prosecute suspected thieves, for instance. North Carolina is a case in point.

Dave Simpson is the North Carolina director of Carolinas Associated General Contractors’ (AGC) building division. He said the equipment loss problem in North and South Carolina is “huge” and widespread across both states. The NER ranks North Carolina No. 2 in frequency of thefts for 2004. South Carolina isn’t far behind at No. 9.

The Carolinas AGC is going to the North Carolina General Assembly for help. The organization is lobbying for a bill that would increase penalties for the thefts. Simpson said it is apparent that thieves in his state know that if a piece of stolen equipment or stack of materials is worth less than $1,000, they will be charged with a misdemeanor. That is little deterrent. He wants job-site theft generally to be a felony. The AGC also wants tougher penalties for thefts in the upper end of the equipment value range.

Harsher penalties are not “a panacea,” Simpson acknowledged, but they can help convey the message that society is serious about protecting construction company property.

Shillingford noted that states could raise the ante for crooks simply by registering backhoes, skid steer loaders, bulldozers and other mobile pieces of equipment in the same way that cars and trucks are registered.

“There is no registration now,” he observed. “The equipment is just one of those commodities that isn’t titled.”

Consequently, identifying ownership is more difficult. The lack of identification plays into the hands of thieves who want to dump a stolen skid steer without having to come up with real or forged paperwork.

Skid steer loaders were the most popular machines taken by crooks in 2004, according to NER statistics. Almost a third of all heavy equipment taken was one brand or another of skid steer. Swiping of the handy little machines was up fairly dramatically from 2003. Tractors also are popular with thieves, as are backhoes.

Technology can help reduce the crimes, officials said. A variety of mechanical lock-out devices are on the market that effectively immobilize a machine. Also available are electronic signal-sending devices that, when activated, let police track a stolen machine.

Global positioning systems (GPS) are sometimes incorporated into a fleet of equipment, not as theft protection, but as a way of monitoring equipment usage.

Though it primarily is a management tool, the GPS equipment obviously also can help track missing equipment.

Such technology “shows promise,” Shillingford said, though he adds that “it is too early to see if that is going to work. He noted that the technology needs to be adapted to pieces of equipment that take a pounding off roadways and for long periods.

“It [incorporating technological security devices] is definitely going to have an impact in the long run.”

In the short run, the industry can look to low-tech solutions like chainlink fencing and security lights. Shillingford also acknowledged that just a tad more integrity on the buying end would help the situation. Re-selling stolen equipment is easier than it ought to be.

“If someone is offering a $20,000 machine for $10,000, it either is a bargain or it’s too good to be true,” he said. “Someone who buys it is not asking enough questions.”

The stealing of construction equipment is not going to be totally solved, of course. But it can become a less severe problem, officials said, if law enforcement agencies, industry organizations and contractors, will respond to it in smart ways.

“The drive to improve this will come from the insurance industry,” Shillingford believes.

Claims for stolen equipment eventually will require insurers to raise rates, which will encourage buyers and sellers of the equipment to ask manufacturers for more security features.

Despite NER’s discouraging statistics, Shillingford actually is hopeful. He believes the problem might be cresting due to the variety of initiatives being introduced.

“It is a problem that has been getting worse over the past 10 years,” he said, “and it is going to get better in the next five years.”

Written by Giles Lambertson

Dominion Group Inc. is committed to securing construction sites and preventing loss across all industries. Calling 516-554-9823 will result in a free consultation and Dominion Group will find a way to protect your assets.