National Equipment Register (NER) announced an agreement to provide Home Depot with services to help deter theft of the home improvement retailer's rental equipment fleet and assist law enforcement in increasing the recovery rate of its stolen equipment.

NER, a member of the ISO family of companies, provides ownership information to law enforcement agencies seeking to identify suspicious construction and farm equipment. NER ownership records are available for law enforcement to use when attempting to identify missing equipment.

Each piece of equipment in Home Depot's rental fleet will be marked with NER decals that clearly warn thieves that the equipment is registered on a national database used extensively by law enforcement. The decal informs potential criminals that the chances of being detected while moving, storing, or selling the equipment are greatly increased.

"With Home Depot's equipment fleet now added to NER's database, NER and law enforcement will be able to identify equipment belonging to Home Depot--even before a theft is reported," said David Shillingford, president of NER. "If the decal is removed, the equipment is still registered on our database and can be readily identified."

Lisa Richardson, Home Depot's senior manager of tool rental operations, said that Home Depot, like all equipment rental companies, has been hit hard by thieves. "We know that by registering with NER, it will be easier to recover stolen equipment," said Richardson.

For more information visit www.nerusa.com.