Theft prevention is doing my head in second break-in this quarter, what's actually working for you?

Rocked up to site in Western Sydney at 6am Monday with my coffee and just stood there looking at the container. Door pried clean off. Gone: a 20kVA Kubota genny, two Wacker Neuson compactors, Hilti TE 70, Milwaukee combo kit, bits and pieces. Police reckon close to $22k. They took a statement, said don't hold your breath, gave me an event number for insurance and that was it.

Small commercial outfit, 8 blokes, been going 6 years. Second hit in 3 months. Mate 2 streets over got done the same night, so clearly someone's working the area.

Thought I had it covered, fenced site, puck locks, solar floodie, cameras at the gate. Clearly not. Footage shows two blokes in hi-vis walking in like they owned the place at 2am. That's what's killing me, they knew exactly what to take and where it was.

Here's where I'm at. Looking into proper theft prevention systems now, the ones with QR tags for every tool and GPS on the big gear, geofence alerts if anything leaves site after hours. Sounds good in theory. But I've got concerns:

GPS on a genny, don't organised crews just sweep for trackers and pull em straight off? Feels like I'd be paying for false confidence.

The QR check-in/out thing, how do you get subbies to actually scan stuff? My lot can barely fill in a timesheet. And honestly I reckon a chunk of what I'm losing isn't even break-ins, it's gear quietly walking off with subcontractors and never coming back. Hard to prove without some system tracking it though, which is half my problem.

Insurance, anyone actually had a claim go smoother because they had tracking data and a proper asset register? Or does the insurer not care once they've decided to screw you on the payout?

Utes too. Half my crew leaves their vans on the street overnight with tools in em. Told em a hundred times. Anyone cracked this one or is it just a losing battle?

Genuine question, not looking for a sales pitch. What's actually working on your sites right now? And what was a waste of money?

Cheers boys.