If it was a John Deere product, it could have been remotely disabled.
Yes, sarcasm.
Millions of dollars worth of heavy equipment parked and poorly guarded when union workers go home at night is not a good thing.
Union is not the issue. Many construction workers are not union and leave the machinery open for misuse after hours. Having worked heavy equipment myself, we always just shut them off and left. It’s somewhat like when we used to leave rifles hanging in the back window of a pickup truck. Society is becoming more violent.
Besides, to start any sort of vehicle, just reach under the dash, pull out a hand full of wires. Two of them will have bare ends, touch them together and the engine starts and transmission shifter and steering wheel both unlock. They do this on TV all the time.
Basically one key for each brand starts most older machines. I carry a John Deere, Komatsu, and Cat key and can start most anything. These days you need a code to start many brands. Some ask for a code after the key, some need code entry and push a button.