On Wednesday, 8 May 2019, viamon PV security technology made it possible to clear up a major case of solar technology theft and retrieve the stolen goods. Seizure by police forces took place on the site of a logistics company in Poland. According to initial statements by the Polish police, more than 100 industrial inverters of various types worth over EUR 300,000 and other industrial equipment were seized.
The German-Polish police action coordinated by viamon started with a professionally planned theft of PV inverters in the Leipzig area during the night from April 30 to May 1. What the professional thieves didn‘t know: The stolen inverters had been monitored by viamon security systems that analyse the position, vibrations, and current location of the solar components around the clock.
The time of the theft was well chosen by the professional thieves. They took advantage of the fact that May 1 (“May Day”) is a national holiday in Germany, which meant that fewer people would be on duty on the premises of the solar park, and also the police would operate with a skeleton staff or be busy with other tasks in connection with the traditional May Day demonstrations. The dismantling or theft started on April 30 at 23:32 hrs and took only a few minutes. That was when the viamon system initiated an alarm and automatically started electronic tracing.
The equipment was moved via the motorway A9 in northeast direction. As the thieves continued their journey on the A9 towards Berlin, the police – constantly coordinated by viamon – acted very quickly. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Saxony forwarded the case to the CID Frankfurt-Oder within a few minutes, because the thieves were meanwhile clearly on their way from Germany to Poland via the motorways A10 and A12.
