Maybe this should be under stolen equipment category, but I put it under Surveying so that more will see it.
I received a link today from NSPS of a pdf of a list of equipment stolen between 2002 and 2014 in Florida:
4+ million dollars. Just in Florida! I would hope that is an extreme case.
I did lose a GPS receiver years ago (around 2005 or 2006) in Tennessee. No word ever about it. I figured it was some meth addict (rural area). I had another one stolen in PA in 2007 or 2008, got it back right away because I was pretty sure who took it, a state turnpike commission employee who stopped to ask what I was doing on the side of the Turnpike. I told the responding trooper about my suspicion, he came back and said the guy didn't know anything about it, but lo and behold someone found the equipment later that night off on the side of the road in a snowpile.
There was a message posted on 4/2/14 under the stolen equipment category with a link to a TV news report about thefts in Ft Lauderdale. They said (and I agree) that the stuff probably goes to central and south america. I would like to think that the buyers don't know it is stolen, but some of them probably do and don't care.
I had a 360 prism and rod taken from my property a few years ago (I left it leaning against a tree, before I built my house). I later put up a sign asking for it to be returned. The guy who found it did call me, and told me he sold it to another surveyor for $50. Like that other guy didn't know it was stolen.
Anyway, to me you are the lowest of low life if you steal a man's tools that he uses to make a living. And if you knowingly buy the stuff, you are just as much of a scumbag.
That's exactly why, in the old west, horse theft was a hanging offense. If you stole a man's horse, you stole his means of earning a living. It was a serious offense for a reason.
Moved to Stolen Equipment category, as it won't be seen any less there than in the Land Surveying category. Both categories are public and shared across the social networks.
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Big heroin problem these days; start with oxycodone ($80 a dose) and go quickly to heroin at $20 or so a hit.
Stealing to fence it off. These days, I've been told, the dealer will take the equipment rather than the addict having to fence it. Harder to find it.
Had Carlson training a couple of weeks ago and trainer said that things are really bad in Miami, FL. People jumping out of vans, snatching equipment and driving away. 2 hours later equipment is on a boat to South America.