It’s Monday morning and you arrive back on your construction site just to find the pad lock cut off you storage box. You open it to see $10,000 in tools and equipment are missing. You call the police but without any substantial leads all they can do is make a report. You don’t want to make an insurance claim as that would raise your rates and have you paying more in the long run.

This is a real life problem facing an increasingly alarming amount of project managers every day. Jobsite theft costs the construction industry over $1 billion a year according to the National Association of Home Builders and the National Equipment Register. Items like copper wire and piping or skirting are some of the most common stolen materials.

There are a few different reasons being cited for the increase in jobsite theft. High value items are either made to be mobile or are light weight enough to be easily taken from a jobsite. The lack of security on weekends while no staff is present at the site makes it easy for thieves to get in and out undetected. The large majority of jobsite thefts happen between 6 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Monday while the site is uninhabited. The industry uses simple to operate machinery for speed and ease of use. In fact, many pieces of machinery on a jobsite will use a universal key making it easier for workers to move from machine to machine but if that key gets in the hands of a thief they now have access to most of your equipment. The final and most appalling reason cited for jobsite theft is construction workers are not properly protecting their own equipment. Instead of locking tools or equipment away in a secure location they leave them out on the jobsite or behind a simple pad lock that can be easily removed with a pair of bolt cutters.

Here at A-Verdi we have been working on a solution to the jobsite theft plaguing our local Upstate New York construction workers. We provide ground level office and storage containers that can keep your tools and equipment safe and secure on a jobsite. You may be thinking: “We already use storage containers but those are just locked by a padlock which keeps getting cut off”. This was often a problem for our customers so we have come up with a crafty invention that will keep thieves from cutting off your lock. We designed a small steel lockbox that is welded on over where your padlock attaches to the container. It might seem like a simple solution but this box makes it impossible for thieves to cut your lock with bolt cutters or any other conventional tool.

Although this method can keep your tools and equipment safe, your jobsite will still be a target for thieves. Expensive building materials will still be out and unprotected as they are connected to the final project. Here are some additional tips to help prevent this type of jobsite theft.

• Lighting – Making you jobsite well-lit will deter thieves who hide under the veil of darkness. Installing motion sensor light can scare thieves away, and are a great alternative to leaving the lights on all night.
• Just-In-Time Delivery – Just-in-time delivery means that your building materials arrive as you need them. This will prevent storing expensive materials onsite for long periods of time, shortening the window thieves have to make their heist.
• Get Help – Enlist the help of a neighbor in the area. This way, when you’re off the jobsite for the weekend there is still someone checking up on it from time to time and they can alert the police while they still have time to catch the thief in the act.
• Mark and photograph your equipment and record the serial numbers- This will provide important information for police and your insurance. Marking the equipment with an obvious and hidden mark will help identify the tool as yours if found by law enforcement. For this same reason you should record the serial number.

Jobsites have always been and are likely to remain a high priority target for local thieves and vandals. The relatively low security mixed with the high potential rewards make construction sites a thieves dream. We would like to help you keep your tools and equipment safe on the job with one of our steel lockboxes that can be requested on any of our different container models. If you think your tools are at risk give us a call today!