A unfortunate side effect of the Canterbury rebuild is the growing amount of opportunistic theft from the vehicles of tradespeople, as well as containers and construction sites says Canterbury Police.
The most common thefts are power tools, trailers, plate compactors, generators and diesel fuel.
Investigations are ongoing into the theft of 50 bags of under floor insulation valued at $20,000.00 from a warehouse in January.
At the end of January 2015 a $30,000 digger that had been stolen from a locked yard in the city was recovered by Police and a person charged with receiving stolen property.
“It is astounding the lengths some burglars will go to and the loss to the owner is often far greater than the value of the stolen items. Unfortunately hundreds and thousands of dollars worth in damage can be caused taking something the thief might get a hundred dollars for,” says Detective senior sergeant Scott Anderson.
“Last week over $20,000 worth of stolen tools were located at a Bryndwr address as part of an unrelated investigation.” he says
On Tuesday March 3 a stolen tandem trailer loaded with concrete and construction equipment worth $30,000 was found in a secure lockup in Kainga. The trailer and some of the equipment, which were reported as being stolen 9 days earlier, had been repainted.
“One person was charged and Police have been able to return the majority of the equipment seized to the rightful owner,” says Anderson
“It is really difficult to guard against thieves that target a property or go to great lengths to take item(s) but there are many simple steps we can all take to make it more difficult for the opportunistic thief. These include removing keys, installing kill switches, locking your vehicle when you move away from it and securing tools when they’re not being used.”
The construction industry makes a concerted effort to secure its property by erecting fences and installing CCTV cameras and alarms. However tradespeoples vehicles and on-site containers in remote locations are an easy target.
Canterbury Police says it encourages workers to record the serial numbers of large items and engrave smaller items so they are easily identifiable.
SNAP (Serial Number Action Partnership) is a New Zealand Police initiative that aims to prevent burglary and property offending by making it harder for criminals to sell stolen goods in New Zealand.
The SNAP website allows people to enter, maintain and access the details of all of their important possessions or assets.
