Mike Andes (landscapebusinesscourse.com) reports a theft at his landscaping shop during the July 4 weekend (video dated July 5). Thieves took multiple pieces of equipment — specifically six trimmers, numerous edgers, and many gas cans — from open truck/rack setups (enclosed trailers were not affected). Mike purchased about $3,000 of replacement equipment (three KM91R units, three FS111R units, a straight-shaft trimmer and additional edgers and gas cans) and estimates the total cost including labor disruption at roughly $5,000. He emphasizes locking up equipment (especially rack-style, trailless truck setups), notes that visible shop locations near busy highways are vulnerable despite cameras/lights, and recommends stricter end-of-day securing to prevent similar thefts.
Questions this video answers
July 5 (refers to the July 4 weekend theft).
About $3,000 worth of trimmers, edgers and gas cans.
Three KM91R units and three FS111R units, plus a full straight-shaft trimmer.
Six trimmers.
5-gallon cans for straight fuel and 2.5-gallon cans for two-cycle blend.
Chapters
Hey everyone, Mike gandice here@landscapebusinesscourse.com got some bad news today. Gotta eat some humble pie because we had theft happen at the local shop and we have lost a whole bunch of equipment. And just today I had to buy about $3,000 worth of trimmers, edgers and gas cans. So let me show you and hopefully give you some tips on how you can prevent this from happening at your lawn care landscaping business as well. So in the back here, let me open this thing up. Usually I wouldn't go and get equipment, but the local shop this morning they were all scrambling because like half the trucks were missing stuff. I had to go. So I went ahead and just went to the store and bought them some more stuff. So what we had to buy was we got three of the COM system, the KM91R and then we got three of the FS111R's and then a full straight trimmer, you know, full shaft. And then we got a bunch of the edgers again stolen on the weekend. So right now it's July 5th. On July 4th weekend, we lost six trimmers, a bunch of edgers, and a whole bunch of gas cans. And there's possibly even someone that siphoned off gas at the shop. So a bit of a pain. These all cost about three grand, but we probably lost even more than that. But more painful than just the equipment cost is the time it takes to kind of like even this morning we probably wasted five or six man hours because you have the whole team there juggling equipment, juggling trucks, trying to figure out where they're going. And then you'll get. Gas cans are missing. No, these are the gas cans we use. We use 5 gallon gas cans for straight fuel and then we use two and a half gallon cans for the two cycle blend. These are the no spill gas cans we used to use the shore cans. But after using this one time, I realized this was just so much better than the Shurkan. Now I used to be a die hard shuriken type of guy, but these over time have held up a lot better as they've been through a lot of trucks and trailers and just even with heat expansion when they're out in the sun and things. So we love these. They're spring loaded, they work great, but they are expensive. That thing right there is 40 bucks and we lost a whole bunch of them on the weekend. So what can you do to prevent this from happening in your business? Well, first of all, regardless of your garage at a storage facility or a Shop whatever you're using, make sure everything's locked up. That was our downfall on these ones, because an enclosed trailer, for example, you can lock up the trailer. Those were all fine. All of those were safe. What these got stolen off of is the trailless setups, the ones with the racks that stay outside. And at the end of the day, we gotta lock those bad boys up. They have locks in there for a reason, and we forgot some of the trucks, and that's why these were stolen. So make sure things are locked up. It's painful. This $3,000 plus probably $1,000 worth of wasted labor. And now we've got to make sure that we get the clips adjusted correctly for all of these trimmers. Because they go on those racks, they have to be adjusted just right to actually fit the aluminum clips. So all in all, it's probably going to cost the company about $5,000 in wasted time, equipment cost, and just juggling trucks around Our local shop, our space is right next to a really busy highway. And so it definitely kind of acts like a fishbowl for people to see into your shop. It's great for branding, great for advertising. People see this sign and the brand and all the rest of it, it. But it's definitely an opportunity for people to see where you park everything, where you keep all your equipment. And so at the end of the day, yes, we have motion detection lights, we have cameras, we have sirens and security systems. But a lot of that stuff, honestly, unless they break something, the cops don't usually investigate. So if someone's just gonna pick something off your truck without breaking a lock or breaking into your house or shop space, usually the cops aren't gonna really investigate a whole lot. So. So just a reminder, lock stuff up on the weekends at night. Prevent something like this from happening. I'm Mike Andy's landscapebusinessports. Com. We'll see you tomorrow.
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