Brazen burglars bust barriers to boost bulldozer in broad daylight

Updated Dec 31, 2014

Bulldozer stolen broad daylight Lakeside California

A lot of heavy equipment thefts take place on open jobsites and sometimes because keys are left in the ignition. But when you’re dealing with experienced and determined criminals, not even taking all the necessary precautions to protect valuable machines can keep them from being stolen.

That’s the lesson a trucking company in Lakeside, California learned earlier this month when a Caterpillar D6 bulldozer was stolen from its fenced in lot in the middle of the day, according to a report from ABC 10 News.

RELATED: $300 million worth of heavy equipment stolen in 2013

As you can see in the video below, the thieves snuck into the equipment yard through the back before likely hotwiring the dozer and driving away. From the video, it appears they drove the machine right through the chain-link fence surrounding the yard, before driving under a freeway and through a riverbed.

Then, over the course of about an hour, the thieves calmly loaded the dozer, valued at $300,000, onto a trailer in front of a nearby business. The loading was caught on surveillance video.

Luckily, the dozer was later recovered thanks to help from viewers of the news report. Stories like this show that you can’t be too careful when it comes to protecting your investment. And while sometimes you can’t stop a thief from taking your property, at least there are tools like telematics and GPS tracking to help you hunt down your machine when it goes missing.