Thieves jubilee celebrations dampened...

Whilst the majority of the great British public were celebrating the Queen's 60 year reign on the throne, equipment thieves were orchestrating the theft of a £24,000 Takeuchi TB228 excavator from Merthyr Tydfil over the Jubilee bank holiday.

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The thieves didn't expect their celebrations to be cut short by the South Wales Police who located the 3-tonne machine five days later and immediately called TER to identify it.

An examination by a TER inspector revealed that the serial, engine and CESAR plates had all been removed. Despite this, the inspector was able to identify the item as the stolen machine using other identification numbers and following support from the manufacturers, Takeuchi MFG UK, who were helpful throughout the investigation.

The excavator is now being held in secure storage where it will shortly be released to the delight of the owners, Eagle Plant. Gary Parfoot, Finance Director for Eagle Plant, said: "We are extremely grateful to TER, the South Wales Police and Takeuchi for their substantial efforts in locating and identifying this machine which was only delivered to us seven weeks ago. We look forward to receiving it back in our equipment fleet".