Police plea: Tradies, please label and secure your tools

Police are becoming increasingly concerned at the amount of building and construction equipment being stolen in Christchurch. We base this on the number of reported thefts and burglaries from construction and building sites and the amount of equipment we are recovering.

We ask that tradespeople secure and label tools, to protect them from theft.

These thefts can also impact on the wider public, for example, creating risk for others in the area where the thefts are occurring. This exposes those residents and property owners potentially to more crime, such as burglary, car theft and even wilful damage.

Detective Senior Sergeant Neville Jenkins from Christchurch Police says “In recent times we have recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of tools and equipment that by its very location, we know is most likely stolen, and yet it has no identifier on it.

The police have offered labelling assistance and try to educate, but we don’t have enough interest in this, so please make this your priority and you can do that here by clicking on this link

Where anyone sees a building site or construction area that is unsecured or where equipment is left out, it should be brought to the attention of the company directly, or phone the police who can assist.”

Police are committed to crime prevention, but just like a home owner takes steps to secure their property, we would like to see construction and building companies take the same responsibilities," he says.

If you see suspicious behaviour on site during and after hours, call Police on 111 or if you have knowledge of stolen tools, please phone anonymously 0800 555 111, CrimeStoppers.

ENDS

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