THIEF Hits Construction Site

[hunterridgefarm]

I am documenting my house building project in the Project section under "Land Clearing to House Building". We have been involved in the actual building of the house for the last few months and have had no problems.

I am about 500' off the road and out of sight of the highway. Well last night someone walked in and stole 3 large spools of wire and a level. The builder called me this morning to see if I had noticed anything missing over the weekend. I had spent most of the day there Sunday. I had not noticed anything missing. I remembered seeing the air compressor and level but paid no attention to the wire. So it must have happened Sunday night.

I went out at lunch today and walked around to see if there were any signs of where they had pulled off on the highway. Since the 3 spools was on a hand truck you would have thought they would have rolled the hand truck with the wire on it. But for some reason they removed the pins and took all three spools off the hand truck and I guess carried it out, and those spools are heavy. I found a set of foor prints going around my gate at the road. The chain had not been cut so I am guessing the backed up to the gate. The top of the ridge where the house is it is a steep grade I don't think one person would have made three tips, one trip walking up it will get the heart rate thumping. So it must have been more than one person. We could not see any tracks where they rolled the spools so they had to carry it.

I plan to talk to the guy who lives across from me this afternoon when he gets home. He has been good to tell me if he see anything out of the ordinary. I know several people that live around me and they are all good people and would let me know if they had seen anything. But whoever it was most likely came late at night.

They did not strip any wire off the studs and all of my wiring has been completed. The builder is responsible for the wire and he "said" it would not be charged to me.

Thsi really lights my fire and I am ready for war. But the builder said he had been hit a couple of times in the past and has never had anyone come back a second time.

I have a camper Icould pull to the building site but he suggested we wait and see since the sheet rock should be up by the middle of next week. And he will start taking everything with him when he shuts down in the afternoon.

I guess I am just venting here a little...this just makes me very angry! I be loading the pistols tonight and driving out late to see if I can catch someone.

I may just go ahead and pull the camper up there and stay the nights until everything can be locked up.

What do oyu think?

 

[Tig]

I had a camper onsite when I built and it usually had someone in it. The biggy is the windows and doors. I slept onsite after they were delivered. Once they were installed and I could lock the doors I rested easier.
My wife once saw a guy get picked up at the build across the street at 3 AM. He must have been dropped off earlier and prowled the building.
I say bring the camper and stay when you can. Now that they know what else is there they may come back with bolt cutters and a truck.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm on the West Coast, but I would be concerned about a repeat... something about a thief always returns to the scene of the crime.

It's a real shame it is getting to the point where you've got to nail down everything and just about post a guard on construction sites.

Several months ago, I posted on TBN about getting an early AM Sunday call from the Hospital where I'm employed... thieves stole two water back flows and left the facility and it's patients without domestic water for several hours Sunday morning until I could get temp water restored.

As hard as it is... try to remain rational... don't want to read about you in the papers.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

I had a camper onsite when I built and it usually had someone in it. The biggy is the windows and doors. I slept onsite after they were delivered. Once they were installed and I could lock the doors I rested easier.
My wife once saw a guy get picked up at the build across the street at 3 AM. He must have been dropped off earlier and prowled the building.
I say bring the camper and stay when you can. Now that they know what else is there they may come back with bolt cutters and a truck.

We will be able to lock the doors once the sheet rock is up. The build site is 3 miles from where we live now so spending the night would not be a problem. The only problem is I need to go out of town for a couple of days but can put that off until we can lock.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

As hard as it is... try to remain rational... don't want to read about you in the papers.

That will be the hard part.

 

[RonMar]

You did file a police report right? You might also touch base with the local recyclers. Unless the thief is wiring a house, they will want to turn that wire into cash. Giving the hardest job to the laziest guy will result in the easiest way to do the work, which means that the spools may be delivered complete as removed from the site to the closest recycler. The shipping/purchase invoices for the wire may even have the lot numbers that are on the spools so it could be identified as yours or your contractors property. A strategically placed, well concealed game camera or two may also net some interesting photographs.

 

[drssg]

Our house is about 650' off the road and the place was swarming with crooks during the building process. The good news is that we haven't had trouble once the construction was done. There seems to be a group of people that make their "living" stealing stuff from construction sites.

Sleeping there wouldn't have done it at our place. Our builder had his generator stolen in broad daylight. He had just left the build site for a couple of hours to check on another site.

The big difference for us was installing a locked gate at the driveway. Due to the lay of our land, the driveway is the only practical way to get to the house. Even a quad runner would have a difficult time finding an alternate route. If you can eliminate the crook's "drive-up" access to the house, that will discourage most of them. These guys want to get in and out as quickly as possible.

Good luck.

 

[SnowRidge]

Ever think about planting a wildlife camera just off the drive? You might get a picture of them.

 

[WBWI]

Copper theft is a big problem here as well. The local utility recently busted 2 guys stealing scrap copper from one of their lots. I was worried about my house during its recent construction but fortunately there were no problems. We had a lot of gawkers that "tresspassed" but none of them were thieves.

 

[ultrarunner]

A year and half ago I get a 1:30 am call that multiple silent motion alarms are going off in the admin wing of the Hospital were I'm employed. Every time this has happened in the past it was a Doctor who just got out of the ER or someone that was working late at budget time and had inadvertently set off the alarm.

Anyway, I respond and notice the Door to the Directors office ajar. I walk in and catch the burglar/thief in the process of taking a tire iron to the row of locked files. Figuring I had the element of surprise and that a good offense is the best defense, I charged him and he dropped everything and fled.

I chased him through the building and across the parking lot. I called 911 as I was running and told them I need the Police now and than I was in pursuit of a burglar.

The dispatcher asked, "What did I mean by 'Now' I told her that I'm running down the street after the guy. Dispatch asked me what I looked like??? It was so the police could ID me.

5 Squad Cars arrived and sealed off the neighborhood. I told the officer where the thief was. He refused to come out so they sent in the Canine Unit.

The dog had him in about 30 seconds.

The irony is that I was summoned to appear in court on behalf of the thief. Oh, this was his third strike and he pleaded guilty. He was suing the city for excessive use of force because he claimed that he was not given ample opportunity to surrender before the dog was sent in.

Anyway, I was the only witness and testified that the Officer gave a warning that the Dog was coming in and that was it.

He should be away for a number of years...

By the way, the Police both reprimanded me and at the same time praised me. I was told how foolish it was to go after the guy and what a great service I did by catching him...

 

[LMTC]

Ever figure out what he was after? Locked files in a Director's office does not seem like a typical druggie's target........ I smell intrigue.

 

[ultrarunner]

The Director's office was just where I caught him... he had jimmied the doors to 5 locked offices prior to getting to that one. No Drugs in the admin wing.

In his duffel bag the police found a bunch of petty items. He cleaned out the office supply cabinet of 40 new Duracell Batteries, a Brother Label Machine, about a Dozen Ink Jet Cartridges... unopened 2lb bag of Peanut M&M's and the contents of the pencil drawers for the offices he had broken into.

I think we counted $25 in cash and one of the employee's cell phone in the mix.

The damage he did to the building and file cabinets was many times greater than the items stolen.

The older I get the less tolerance I have. Would you believe that a couple of employee's said they hoped the Police Dog hadn't hurt him too badly?

My apologies to Hunterridgefarm... I just commiserating with you

 

[Kendall69]

They pushed in my security fence/gate at the entrance to my nursery and drove off with a bran new 16' dump trailer. The only consolation, it was full so they saved me a dump fee.

There's a company out my way that sets up multiple video camera's on a HUGE pole in the center of the job site with HUGE signs video monitoring etc.

I thought that was a great idea. The 4- 6 cameras are on the top of the pole and point in all directions at the same time front,back, sides, doors etc.

I look into a set up that I thought was great. You can sit at your computer and monitor your site from home, and with the day/night cameras they can put them on motion sensors so they come on when they detect movement.

Also I found a cool ditty. It's a motion senor that you can set at the entrance or anywhere, then have a wire go from the sensor to a large speaker, and the sensor can record sounds like a barking dog - or you yelling HEY WHO"S OUT THERE!!!!

VX-402REC - Optex's outdoor detection - Home Security Store


So if the cross the path, they will hear dogs barking "in the distance" or whatever you record, this one is fun.

I set it up at the entrance to the house to try it out with a PA speaker. the wife came home and crossed the sensor and almost dropped he packages when she heard the dogs barking.

Fish hooks dangling from approaching bushes that they may use to sneak up on.

Glass glued to the backside of the top of your fence, so when the climb it they get cut up.

I installed climb proof fencing the same fencing they use in prisons, and it stopped my problem.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

I spent the evening talking with neighbors to see if anyone saw or heard anything Sunday night. The only neighbor who has property bordering me, and is actually at the back of my property line said there two dogs starting barking around 12 midnight. They will be watching out for anything unusual and offered to keep an alarm at their house if I could find a driveway sensor that would reach that far.

The neighbor across from my driveway said his dogs started barking around 1:00am and he saw someone walking down the road with a flashlight but did not see any vehicles parked across the road. But he also said it is not unusual to see people walking the roads late at night. I don't know if thats true but I did drive out around 11:00pm last night and passed an older man about a mile from my build site thumbing for a ride. He did say he would keep an eye out and would call. He is a good old guy and has known my wifes family a number of years.

I have another friend that lives a couple hundred yards from the end of my prpoerty line and works second shift but did not work Sunday night. So they will be checking for me.

I think it is someone within walking distance of the property and have been given a couple of names to check out by the people who live in that area.

We will still most likely bring the camper in so I can stay there at night. However the house should be lockable in the next couple of weeks. I was going to ask the builder if I could put a wood stove in the basement and just stay in the house.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Thanks to everyone for the replys.

The builder should be filing the police report but we have so much copper theft in this area that he said it would not make much of a difference if he filed or not.

I have thought about the wildlife camera but do they not have a flash when they take a picture?

Also we plan on having a security light installed once the house was complete. Do you think it would help to do this now or would it just allow the thiefs to see better?

Thanks,
David

 

[dooleysm]

This past spring someone stole a 1 gallon gas can from my grandpa's storage shed right in town. Since he's long retired and didn't have anything better to do, he filed a police report. In August a police officer stopped by his house to tell him they had found his gas can during a drug raid. They thanked him for filing the report, because they were able to add another theft charge to the drug dealer's rap sheet. He also got his gas can back! It helps that he engraves his initials on everything he owns.

Even if you're willing to accept the loss of the wire, it's still worth it to file a police report, because you give the police another tool to keep criminals behind bars once they catch them.

 

[Tig]

I always file a police report if I witness a crime or I am the victim of one. It gives the police an idea of the crime patterns if nothing else.
I think the security light is a good idea. Especially if you are staying at the site. It will tip you off to any one lurking. A digital camera may be of some help, although most have a tough time in low light conditions.
I would suggest that you put the trailer in a cleared area and do not light the trailer area. If I am checking something out I like to have the area of concern lit while I asses the situation from the cover of darkness. Even if you catch them red handed you may want to just quietly call the cops and take notes rather than confront them.
Years back I caught a thief. I was angry and just walked in the neighbours boathouse and grabbed him. On the way in the police picked up his two buddies who were keeping a lookout about 200 feet away. I was lucky they were potheads and were oblivious to the fact that I had caught their buddy twenty minutes earlier.

 

[RonMar]

They make game cameras that are purely infared illumination, no flash, all digital, no sound, just pic after pic once their motion detector is activated.

A security light can be a good idea, but not as effective as something else. People who are doing something they know is wrong, don't like unexpected surprises. Like as mentioned, the motion detector dosn't turn on a light, but turns on some recorded noise or starts up a piece of machinery. If it is loud enough and you neighbors know what to listen for, you wouldn't need to use a remote alarm like one of your neighbors volunteered to monitor.

If you are going to camp out, one thing very important as mentioned, a person looking from the darkened area is always at the advantage, so park in the shadows and iluminate the target area.

Don't get tunnel vision if you do catch someone, watch and look around(360 degrees around). The example of the 2 other guys out in the bushes is one to learn from. Just like most people who hit deer with a car. It isn't the one that they saw that was hit. They were focused on that one. It was the one they didn't see that they hit(or hit them).