While serving a search warrant at a remote residence,
auto-theft detectives found a dozer among several stolen autos. Seeking
assistance in locating and verifying the Product Information Number
and to determine if the unit was stolen and who the proper owner was,
the officers called the National Equipment Register, Inc. (NER). NER
helped the officer find the correct serial number and then located the
owner of the unit who had no idea that his unit was missing. The owner
had left the unit at a work site off of a local highway and had not
checked on it for some time prior to these events. Among other methods
of proving ownership, the owner confirmed that his company decals were
posted on the unit. The officers did see the remnants of 2 ground-off
decals, but they were indecipherable. No police report had yet been
filed and no insurance claims made, so there were no records of this
theft. As the unit was inoperable, finding the proper owner also allowed
the officers to save the costs of transport by having the owner tow
and remove the unit himself.
Funded primarily by the insurance industry, NER's equipment
specialists maintain a national database containing thousands of stolen
equipment reports and millions of ownership records. By calling NER
toll-free (1 866 6 NER USA) at any hour and at no cost, law enforcement
can receive assistance with identifying a piece of equipment, locating
Product Identification Numbers and verifying that the PIN matches the
type of equipment in question. For internet users, NER's database of
stolen equipment is available to law enforcement in a password protected
area of their website, www.NERusa.com.
Click here for more info on NER
