CCTV scan in vandal search
Neighbours hear nothing as digger rips apart $675,000 new-build home
Police hunting vandals who broke into a construction site and tore down a new $675,000 South Auckland home with a digger have been checking security cameras from nearby houses.
Workers arrived at the Flat Bush site on Friday morning to find a 20-tonne digger’s bucket had smashed into the home’s roof and walls. The house would have to be rebuilt, at a likely cost between $200,000 to $300,000.
The vandals also used a second, smaller digger to damage concrete foundations laid for a complex of 80 apartments also being built on the DDL Homes site.
Police asked for CCTV footage from the home of at least one nearby resident. However, the resident had not heard any noise or disturbance from the construction site overnight on Thursday.
A developer himself, the neighbour said he had never heard of a crime like it.
Homes he and his friends had built had suffered minor vandalism, such as smashed windows or doors, while under construction. And he had heard of fire damaging homes on worksites.
“But nothing like
We just don’t know why someone would do that. Baljit Dheil
this,” he said.
DDL Homes owner Baljit Dheil earlier told the Herald that her team was shocked.
“We just don’t know why someone would do that,” she said.
“Even police were saying this morning they’ve never had a case like this.”
GPS data from the diggers showed the vandals had been on the site for hours.
They started the first smaller digger
at 1am on Friday and used it to “attack” and drive over the concrete foundations of the 80-apartment complex, all of which had been presold.
The damage meant the entire foundations would now have to be pulled up and relaid, Dheil said.
The vandals next started the 20-tonne digger at about 3.30am and tore apart the townhouse.
Due to be handed over to its buyers, everything had already gone into the home, including the kitchen and bathroom finishings. The workers were only waiting on carpet and flooring.
There would also be a two-tothree-month delay as all the materials had to be reordered and delivered,
and builders rehired.
Dheil had been forced to call the home’s buyers on Friday to deliver the bad news.
They took it as philosophically as was possible, she said.
There was also concern that seven other townhouses attached to the home had also been damaged. Should those townhouses need to be rebuilt, then the cost of repairs could stretch well past $1 million.
Police could not provide an update on their investigations yesterday.
They had earlier said anyone with information could contact police by calling 105 and quoting the file number 210611/6076.
“Information can also be provided through Crimestoppers anony
mously on 0800 555 111,” a spokesman said. Dheil could also not be reached for further comment yesterday.
The closest houses to the site with residents living in them were all some distance away.
DDL Homes was now filing an insurance claim and said an assessor would inspect the damage.
The site didn’t yet have security cameras but DDL Homes had been working on setting up security after thieves broke into site’s portable container a month ago and made off with computers, microwaves and other goods.
A door-knock of neighbours by Dheil’s team on Friday morning also failed to yield any clues.