Video: Longer Days And Better Weather Means Thieves Are On The Lookout For Certain Equipment

MONROE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Construction tools were found in that theft operation in Monroe County.

Sheriff Cecil Cantrell says outside equipment is easier for thieves to get their hands on.

Longer days and better weather means thieves are on the lookout for easy access to certain equipment.

“Crime actually starts up in the spring and the summer. People are out more, they’re doing more, they’re having more outside activities, and it just makes crime go up in the spring and summer,” says Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell.

Heavy equipment is among the spring’s most popular items to land in the wrong hands.

“We feel like maybe some of this, like the cutting torches and those things maybe, and gages, are probably from a construction company and we don’t know that, but we probably think that and yes, they’re working long hours, you know, you stay out there 12 to 14 hours a day and you might leave some stuff out.”

Weathers Construction President Gary Weathers says the construction company has nearly 30 projects underway in two different states, with different surroundings at each site.

“It’s very hard when you’re out on a job-site and there’s no way to protect anyone from being able to walk up on the job-site, sometimes without a fence, and take things.”

Equipment to get the job done doesn’t come cheap either. Some of the major ones cost over $200,000.

“It’s expensive for sure, to purchase and maintain, and like I said, we try to do all we can with it, but it’s not, if somebody wants to steal it, you know, it’s not that they can’t get it, so they can take it.”

That’s why the local company takes preventive measures for the common thefts all building companies deal with.

“Anytime of the year and we do put satellite tracking devices on all of the trucks and all of the major equipment.”