Security company records a break-in a day at construction sites as thefts boom
Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Building material shortages and price rises and general increases in the cost of living are fuelling a rise in thefts from construction sites, industry players say.
Auckland-based security company Crosbies has recorded an average of one break-in a day this year at the Hamilton and Auckland construction sites it monitors, and a tripling in demand for its cameras.
Crosbies managing director Joshua Parsons said his cameras had captured everything from flatbed trucks stealing whole pallets of material, to opportunists pinching batteries and copper and syphoning fuel.
He said thefts were often perpetrated by people trying to steal high-demand materials and on-sell them at inflated prices, while others were driven by desperation as the cost of living increased.
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In the past six months demand had been particularly driven by concerns about tradies stealing from competitors’ sites and people breaking into sites to syphon diesel, he said.
During the level three lockdown in October, Crosbies was approached by builders after their fenced-off worksite had an entire pallet of timber stolen, Parson said.
“The first day [the builders] went, half the pallet had gone, and so they rolled the dice, and put the fencing back up, and the next day the whole pallet had gone.”
Parsons said a tradie was arrested as he left a competitor's worksite last weekend.
“He didn’t get away with much because the sirens went off.
“The fear is real, we are hearing the fear every day when we talk to clients. We’ve had customers put our camera above their pallets of timber.”
Police note increase
Police Superintendent Eric Tibbott said officers had noticed an increase in burglaries from building sites over the last few months.
“Theft from construction sites is not a new issue,” he said.
“These locations often contain high-value items such as machinery, tools, building materials and fuel, of which are desirable to thieves and easy to on-sell.”
He advised builders to keep valuable tools and materials out of sight, pack up all equipment at the end of the day and put up fences.
Parsons said the number of cameras he had deployed around Auckland and Hamilton had increased from 70 cameras to 217 in a year.
“I’m an ex-police office myself, I used to work in burglary prevention, and I would say about 90 per cent [of attempted theft] is unreported or under-reported. And when I say under-reported, I mean we have evidence of an offender on-site and the police won’t come to us for footage,” he said.
One of Crosbies’ new customers, Chancellor Construction experienced an attempted break-in last Fridayat a building site in the Auckland suburb of Favona.
Chancellor director Wayne Zeng said the company built about 120 homes a year. Thefts were becoming a big issue and security gates and monitored CCTV had become the norm.
“It’s part and parcel with the job, it’s not the first time it’s happened.” Zeng said.
During Friday’s attempted burglary a man climbed onto the roof of the site office and tried to destroy one of four CCTV cameras.
Zeng said the man gave up after realising how long it would take to disable all four cameras.
The company was upgrading to Crosbies cameras because they were monitored 24/7, and used floodlights and loud audio warnings if an intruder was detected on-site, he said.
Constructa has 18 sites in Auckland and director Ben Price said the company spent on average $4000 on security cameras per site.
It was worth it, with any delays due to thefts creating big costs, he said.
Price said Constructa left nothing on-site and had a closed-gate policy during the day.
“Our thefts are not from tradies taking materials and selling it. Ours are from the public taking what they can find,” he said.
“It’s not just because building materials are so expensive, I believe it’s that living is so expensive at the moment – it’s all down to living costs.”
He said materials had been stolen, but usually thieves were after tools, generators, fuel and often digger batteries.
The company arranged deliveries timed so materials could be installed on the same day.
“We have our gib board arrive at say 7.30am, and by eight o’clock we have guys fixing it straight away, so it’s on the walls before anyone can take it.”
“In the last two years gangs and theft are both up massively,” he said.
“I can only assume that’s the cost of living.”
His builders had a reminder recently of how easily things could be stolen, when a thief backed up to a ute outside the fence and stole a generator after smashing the locks holding it down.
“The last two years have been really bad, basically since the first Covid lockdown,” Price said.