Crime Guru Builds Industry's Largest Theft Database

Thieves stand less of a chance when users register their equipment

Jason Scott NER helps police identify stolen iron.

Crooks often find a way to elude work-site watchdogs. But they are having a harder time scoring machines enrolled in the National Equipment Register, a New York City-based database of owners, machines, serial numbers, photographs and reported thefts that Shillingford, 39, began building up in 2001 after several years’ helping insurers recover stolen art.

The service, which costs dollars per machine per year, is recognized by many insurers some offer deductible waivers as a key strategy to manage risk. When a machine is stolen, the insurer is on the hook after paying out a claim. But insurers are so confident that they will find stolen goods listed in the database, many will offer incentives to register. NER trains police on how to spot “hot” iron and gets a cut of any liquidated assets.

Multimedia  View Award of Excellence Luncheon and Acceptance Speech of David J. Shillingford  April 3, 2008

The service complements wireless tracking devices and has become so valuable that the Jersey City, N.J.-based Insurance Services Office Inc., which owns the largest database of claims in the world, purchased NER last spring. At the same time, light-equipment maker Multiquip Inc. signed on by registering its clients as a free.

Shillingford estimates the annual cost of stolen equipment at $1 billion or more, but no one really knows. NER, however, is the closest thing the industry has to a crime clearinghouse. It has records of 13 million off-road machines about two-thirds of the U.S. fleet and may soon work in real time with tracking devices to help owners and police nab crooks