One Man, $100,000 Construction Heist

You may be asking yourself, is this even possible? Could one man successfully steal $100,000 worth of construction equipment? Well, yes. Not only did he successfully steal the equipment, but he did it in broad daylight, specifically 8:11 am. On November 15 at 8:11 AM, one man was able to breach CEMCO Environmental Systems in Burlington County, NJ.  The reports say he stole numerous probing tubes, a Geo-probe, a DINGO (drilling machine), and a white CEMCO trailer. Just for reference, the drilling machine itself weighs 1 ton (2,000 lbs). Photos show the suspect was a man of medium build wearing all back clothing and driving a silver Chevrolet pickup truck. The license plate you may ask? Unknown.

The 3 real questions now are how he did it, why he did it, and how did he not get caught. 

We can first rule out that he was not a novice in the delicate art of theft. It has been nearly half a month and he has not been found. This act was clearly planned as he had to know when and how to execute the heist. He had to know the ins and outs of CEMCO and their work schedule. He had to get in and out with over 2,000 lbs of equipment and not get seen. His only failure was not taking out the security cameras. However, I fear that a man with such talent and arrogance felt no need to take out the cameras. Overall, I would feel ignorant to put forth any hypothesis about how he was able to rob CEMCO single-handedly in broad daylight. However, the scarier question is why. I can’t imagine there’s a hot market for probing tubes and industrial drilling machines. Most of these tools are meant for digging, but what is he digging to or for? Or on the other hand, for a man of such skill there is always a chance he was hired by someone to steal these drills. But who would need industrial drills?

I conclude the most logical answer is a rival environmental construction company that is competing with CEMCO for work. It would make sense that during the pandemic, business is struggling and it seems like anyone will do what they have to to keep their heads above the water, even if it means dragging someone else down, so you can keep your head above the surface. 

Source:

New Jersey State Police, www.njsp.org/index.shtml.