Entrepreneurial Small Business 4th Edition by Jerome Katz ,Richard Green

Exercise 4

Focus on Small Business: Curtis Graf and the Nightmare on Construction Street
It's every contractor's nightmare. You arrive on a job site at six in the morning and find that hundreds of thousands of dollars of construction equipment was stolen overnight. Work comes to a halt. Expenses escalate as workers stand around while you make a frenzied effort to buy, borrow, or rent replacement equipment.
Curtis Graf in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, Texas, encountered something even worse. A bold thief, in broad daylight, simply walked onto one of his construction sites, started up, and drove away in a $40,000 backhoe. A worker on the site saw the whole thing, but because the thief looked and acted as if he belonged, mistook him for another worker.
"I paid $3,000 to have it burglar-proofed," Curtis said, "but they stole it anyway!" 1
Most unfortunately, equipment theft is a nightmare that all too often comes true. Despite all efforts-those of law enforcement, the owners, and industry groups-500 pieces of heavy construction equipment are stolen in the United States each week. Fewer than 15 percent of the machines stolen are ever recovered. 2
Curtis did not get his machine back. He faxed a report to the local police and called numerous times to see if it had been found. Curtis said that the only reply from the police was, "We will call you when we find something." He added, "That's short for, 'We don't have time to talk to you anymore.'" 3
His insurance company was little help, as well. It not only delayed payment as long as it could, but it also canceled his policy, which resulted in his changing insurance carriers for the third time in three years. He did finally receive a payment of $24,000 nearly a year after the machine was stolen, leaving him $16,000 shy of the cost of a replacement.
Think of the business that you own or would like to own. How and to what extent would the theft of machinery or equipment be a threat to your business