Thieves hit Kane
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• Two drivers face redundancy at Kane Plant and Services of Redbou.rn near St Albans, following the theft of their MAN tipper trucks earlier this month.
The company also faces severe economic difficulties and its boss, Andrew Kane, reckons that the missing lorries are costing him 2250 to £300 a day each in lost earnings, drivers' wages and repayments on their purchase loans. "I'm losing over 23,000 a week," he says.
The thieves broke into Kane's locked compound at about lOpm on the night of November 12/13 by cutting through the fence and breaking the gate chains. The compound was further protected by a guard dog on a leash, "but they snagged his chain round one of the truck's wing mirrors in the yard," says Kane.
The two missing lorries are an 8x4 MAN 30.281 tipper with an aluminium body — registration number C354 FRX and a MAN 30.240 eight legger, again with an aluminium body — registration number B514 WNM.
The thieves tried to take a third MAN, a 33.31 tipper, but they burned out its starter motor and were forced to leave it behind.
"Our cabs are very distinctive," says Kane. "They're bright yellow with orange and black banding, and they have got light bars across the top of both cabs like American police cars. We painted them up to be flagships for the company. How can you take vehicles like that without anyone seeing them?" One of Kane's subcontractors did spot the trucks at Junction 12 on the Ml, heading north, between 6.50am and 7am on November 13. He did not realise they were stolen at the time however, and did not report the sighting to Kane until the evening of the same day.
The company is now offering a 25,000 reward for genuine information which leads to the recovery of the vehicles. The replacement value of the two trucks is more than 285,000 says Kane, and he is worried about the speed with which his insurance company is responding.
"It's very difficult to get an organisation like Norwich Union to move out of rhythm," he says. "It took them a week just to come round here and take a look."
The local police responses has been very poor says the company and the firm is now struggling on a day-to-day basis.
Kane feels that his trucks were taken to order. The 30.281 was one of the few in the country he says, and he also thinks that the gang of thieves which broke into his yard probably comprised former drivers. To break the steering locks, the thieves used the lorries' spare wheel bars. "They didn't bring their own tools with them. They weren't that professional," says Kane.