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

### 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 relatively
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 view it as stealing equipment. This is because what matters is not your intent to
return it at a later point in time, rather the taking of the equipment and causing the company money for personal use. 

Even if the employee has permission from the owners of the company, it still costs the company money, and still places
an unnecessary amount of risk on the company. As it is not uncommon for insurance underwriters to contractually
stipulate for company equipment to solely be used for company purposes, in other words, solely for income producing
purposes. Violating these contractual requirements can result in cancellation of insurance policies or worse, and can
leave the company in a very vulnerable position. 

Some small business owners try to mitigate this by allowing employees to "rent" company equipment, but if the above is
not enough explanation enough to demonstrate why this is a bad idea, there are other reasons. Such as factors like
ensuring employees have proper training to operate, settling how repairs are to be handled in case the equipment is
damaged, what to do in order to prevent the equipment from being stolen, and the a method for handling accidental
injuries. All of which, should indicate the best strategy is to use company equipment for company work.

{{< image src=https://res.cloudinary.com/solardump/image/upload/v1730930473/evidence/The-high-cost-of-construction-equipment-theft-.png >}}

### 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.