Burglars target building sites
Thousands of dollars worth of appliances have been stolen in a recent spate of burglaries at Christchurch building sites.
On the weekend of December 9, 10 building sites in Wigram’s Brusio Estate were ransacked. One property’s dish draws, hob, wall heaters, loose electricals and range hood were stolen. The burglars tried to steal the wall oven, but could not get it through the doorway.
Signature Homes senior project manager Rob Ainsworth, who oversaw the property, said this type of theft happened fairly regularly, and it tended to get worse over the summer holidays.
The cost of repairing the damage and replacing the stolen appliances would be about $10,000 for each of the 10 sites, he said. The property next to Ainsworth’s had about $18,000 worth of windows packed inside the house on the Thursday.
The builders came back the next day and found they had all been stolen.
‘‘They will steal anything they can take.’’
Ainsworth said the burglars tended to target homes that were at a certain level of completion and, because people were not living in the estates, they became an easy target.
Many of the subdivisions had security posted to them but the perpetrators worked out when they were away, he said. Large concrete blocks with security cameras were installed on some sites to ward off would-be burglars.
‘‘You can try and do everything under the sun, at the end of the day you will not stop someone who wants to get into the house and steal those items, it doesn’t matter what you do.
‘‘It’s basically like going to the supermarket and picking out what you want,’’ he said.
Platinum Homes Christchurch managing director James Holloway said properties he managed in Awatea Park, Halswell, had been broken into multiple times during the past nine months.
On the same night as the breakin at Ainsworth’s property, one of Holloway’s properties in Awatea Park had $10,000 worth of windows stolen. A security camera recorded a van pulling up to the area the night of the break-ins.
‘‘It’s pretty frustrating, pretty disheartening ... you feel violated.’’
Holloway said he had a lot of precautions in place to prevent break-ins, including security guards patrolling the sites in the weekends and padlocking the gates every day.
Such break-ins were prevalent throughout Christchurch though, he said.
‘‘Obviously things are tightening up in Christchurch, construction is slowing down, people are losing their jobs and they can’t afford to get things they need to build a project.’’
Detective Sergeant Ross Tarawhiti said the holiday period created an opportunity for building sites to become targets.
‘‘If they’re going to put expensive items into the house that aren’t tenanted and under construction they need to put in the right measures to ensure those are secured.’’
Burglars often used social media to sell off cheap appliances and tools stolen from building sites, he said.
‘‘Anyone who is offered cheap appliances needs to be aware it could be stolen.’’
Some people saw the new subdivisions as a money-making opportunity, Tarawhiti said.
Sergeant Keith Stanaway said building sites were constantly targeted and site managers needed to safeguard themselves from break-ins.
‘‘We always encourage the guys on these sites to put temporary alarms in and CCTV if they can and, if they’re receiving appliances, make sure the serial numbers are taken down and they record them.’’
Police found a stolen van abandoned in Aranui that was believed to be linked to the robberies in Awatea Park and Brusio Estate on December 9. The culprits were not found.