The first ever theft of a Kranen Michielsens machine was in August 1989. A brand new Scania-mounted truck loader crane was stolen from our own site in Antwerp. Advertisements were placed in Belgian and Dutch newspapers and a reward of Bfr 250,000 was offered. An anonymous tip-off led to its recovery a month later at a gipsy camp in Holland, where the truck had already been cut into several parts.

Last June we were the victims of a much bigger theft. On 15 June 1998, after finishing his crane work near Brussels, one of our operators left his Liebherr LTM 1040 in a parking place near a busy highway. When he returned the following morning he found that it had disappeared.

The theft was reported to the local police and within a few days a full description was circulated internationally among crane factories, crane distributors, surveyors and other official institutes.

To get as many people as possible to phone us a special phone number was established and publicised in the national press. During the day this number was connected to the central office in Antwerp; at night it was connected to my own home.

Numerous calls came but failed to lead to the recovery of the crane. One tip even related to the football World Cup in France. A Dutchman said he had seen the orange-coloured crane driving to Paris for a stunt relating to the orange-wearing Dutch national team.

Over the next several weeks further machine thefts were committed all over Belgium, including several forklift trucks from Allift Michielsens.

On 27 August, at a time when we were still investigating how we could improve the security of our machines, the company was hit by a second crane theft. This time a Liebherr LTM 1120 was taken from our yard in Gent. Everyone was upset and people were asking themselves: “Who is targeting our company?” With the benefit of experience, this time a passport of the crane was circulated internationally even faster than before. Again many people called us, but regretfully without result.

On 1 September the police department called with good news. After an investigation lasting several months, police from Asse had made a raid on a depot near Brussels. The result was astonishing. Not only our Liebherr LTM 1120 was found, but also a lot of other trucks, concrete mixers and so on. Some accomplices were arrested but the leader of the gang was still on the run.

Over the next few days, it was established that the same people were responsible for the theft of our LTM 1040. But that crane had already left the country. It had been shipped from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on 6 August on the MS Atlanticar, destined for Casablanca in Morocco. The Bill of Loading mentioned the name of the designated recipient. A call to the ship’s owner revealed that, even before arrival of the ship, the name of the recipient had been changed.

To pursue investigations in Morocco we appointed a Moroccan lawyer, through our own Belgian lawyer, and also brought in Adviesbureau Service, a Dutch organisation with expertise in recovering stolen machines. On 11 October they visited the given address and found a yellow crane. Anyone who knows cranes could easily see it was a Liebherr. It had been clumsily repainted to cover up the orange and had the inscription “Cools”. Maybe they meant “Coles”. The original chassis number WO9353200PEL 05452 had been changed to WO9353200PEL 86452.

Three times they promised to ship the crane back to us. Every time there were problems and a little bit of doubt overwhelmed us again.

Finally, on 4 December the crane was brought back by the same vessel, the MS Atlanticar, arriving at Zeebrugge on 10 December, and back to our depot the following afternoon.

We would like to thank the Belgian and international crane press for their cooperation by publicising the thefts in their magazines and web-sites.