---
title: Chief's Role in Equipment theft
description: How Lamar County's Chief obtained use of millions of dollar in equipment, without permission.
date: 2024-11-06T21:37:46.313Z
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categories: Post
tags: []
draft: true
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  url: "https://res.cloudinary.com/solardump/image/upload/v1730930597/evidence/f5c660263b90c9.jpg"
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---

### The fall of Helix Group

The collapse of helix group was the result of a bad corporate culture, and poor management practices. It was a prime
example of regardless of cashflow, a business cannot survive if it's expenses exceeds it's earnings. The greatest
expense of any business is it's employees, but a close second is it's equipment. When employees possess disregard for
the equipment owned by a business, then under normal circumstances, the business is destined to fail.

### There is no such thing as "borrowing equipment" from a company, the financial reality.

There is no such thing as borrowing equipment from a company, unless that company is a rental business, in which case
you do not borrow, you pay to rent. Many of us are not aware of it and attempt to classify it under a different label,
but using company owned equipment for personal use is a form of theft, even if you return it. This is because from the
financial viewpoint, every time the equipment is used a portion of the equipment's value is consumed. This is due to
the fact businesses have to account for the depreciation of tangible assets. Assets such as equipment possess a
relatively high rate of depreciation, and the more expensive it is to replace the piece of equipment, the greater the
cost of each portion of value consumed per use.

So in reality, whenever an employee "borrows" a piece of company equipment for personal use, it costs the company money,
and there is no way of getting around this fact. Although, often viewed as being akin to stealing time, it is the same
as reaching into the proverbial till and pulling cash out, so it is a form of theft, and a strict interpretation of
law would designate it as stealing the equipment. This is because what matters is not your intent to return it at a
later point in time, what matters is taking the equipment and costing the company money for your personal use.

Even if the employee has permission from the owners, it still costs the company money, and is more of a case of poor
managerial skills on the owners part, than an excuse for unacceptable behavior. Some employers try to mitigate this by
allowing employees to "rent" company equipment, but it never really works. There are other reasons, not even discussed
here, as to why one should avoid justifying such behavior. These factors would include whether the employee has proper
training to operate the equipment in question, who is going to pay for damages incurred by employees during the personal
use, what happens if the equipment is stolen by a third party, and what if the employee injures themselves or another
individual. Such occasions can be very tricky.

It is not uncommon for insurance underwriters to contractually stipulate for company equipment to solely be used for
company purposes, or for purposes of earning capital for the company. Violating this contractual obligation can cause
insurance policies to be canceled, and can leave the company in a very vulnerable position.

### Conversation

According to a conversation had with a former employee of the now defunct construction contracting firm "Helix group",
Shane Tyler was in charge of the equipment yard. This is in spite of being listed as an excavation contractor on the
official company website.