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• CM guarantees free publicity for any operator unfortunate enough to become a victim of truck crime. It may not get your truck, trailer or components back, but at least it could make life harder for the thieves attempting to use or sell your property.
• The theft of two vehicles from Brighton-based Blundells Machinery Moving could well put the company out of business, says manager Alan Robinson.
"The vehicles taken are the only ones we own," says Robinson. "We specialise in moving factory machinery and we are booked up with work which we are now having to pass on to other people."
The vehicles were taken from Blundells yard between 23:00hrs on Friday 8 May and 16:00hrs on Saturday 9 May — even though it is protected by a video camera surveillance system and an alarm. "There was no sign of the thieves on the cameras," says Robinson.
Both trucks are Mercedes. One is a 2035, reg F112 GYJ with chassis number 64711025386596/8 and engine number 44295820468808. It has a King low-loader trailer model GTS 33/3-19.5. The other is a Merc 1617, reg F590 JDM, chassis number 61701825435213 and engine number 36695220931606. It has a 6.0-tonne Hiab crane. Both vehicles are royal blue and have the company's name over the cabs in white letters. The trailer also has BMM arc welded on to the swan neck, while the 1617 has Blundells' name picked out in lights over the cab.
Contact Alan Robinson on (0273) 624550.
• Crimeline has scored another success. Welsh haulier Gwyn Owen has found a trailer stolen from one of his customer's premises almost five weeks ago, following an anonymous tip-off from a CM reader. It was parked on an industrial estate in Accrington, Lancs.
The 12.2m trailer was taken from a quarry belonging to one of Owen's customers in Gwynedd, Wales, along with an MAN tractive unit and 20 boxes of slates, worth £30,000. The tractor was later discovered burnt out in North Yorkshire.
Owen says he received a call from someone who had read about the theft in CM. "He said: 'Do you want to know where your trailer is?' but he wouldn't give his name," says Owen. "I phoned Lancashire police who sent a constable along to check it out. I went up to collect it the next day. The load, of course, had gone."
The thieves had chiselled off the trailer identification plate but had forgotten that the serial number was also on the chassis, says Owen. The trailer, which is fitted with an Atlas crane, brick grab and donkey engine, was undamaged.
• Halcion Haulage director Jack Corrie broke his own golden rule and let one of his drivers take his lorry home for the night. But he paid the price when the vehicle was stolen from a lorry park on the Barnfield Industrial Estate, near Leek, Staffs.
"It was the first time I had ever allowed a driver to do this but there were difficult domestic circumstances and I wanted to help out," says Corrie, who runs the Newcastle, Staffs-based company. "It has been first time unlucky for me."
The missing vehicle is a Mercedes 1733L, reg H704 KEH, with a Craven Tasker tipper trailer; it was loaded with gypsum and sheeted.
The trailer has a light blue body with "Halcion" in dark blue on the sides and rear. The sleeper cab is white with a dark blue chassis. Both cab doors carry a distinctive motif — a kingfisher set in a circle.
The chassis number is 44196020578283, engine number is 65216325541188 and trailer chassis number is 723029. The contract hired vehicle was spotted driving near the lorry park by police at 02:10hrs on Tuesday May 5 — the theft was reported by the driver just one hour later.
Contact Jack Corrie on (0782) 566665, fax (0782) 565667.