We have had small bits of equipment stolen from our compound by gentlemen in white Transits who just drive in and heave them in the back. After the first theft we put CCTV everywhere so when it happened again recently we were able to give the full film show to the Police. Their response? “Oh yes we know these chaps; no point in going after them because the kit will have disappeared and if you harrass them they might just come back and burn the place down.”

atlaz, no that someone was’nt me. He always suspected it was one of his mates playing a drunken prank, but he never did get to the bottom of it. Unlike his back seat, which had someones bottom all over it.

Plant theft and theft from building sites in general is very very common.

Last big project I was working someone broke in and stole the fuel (red diesel) bowser two weekends in a row, turns out 1000l of diesel is pretty attractive when pump prices were close to £1.50/l. Contractors fitted CCTV after that. At the same time they also nicked a couple of 30m rolls of terram…

Someone stole 9 yorkstone paving slabs from our side path in the summer. Wife and kids were only out for an hour.

There’s been so much work on the street, no-one batted an eyelid when a van and trailer turned up.

It’s annoying and stuff, but the worst thing is the massive knock to my 13 yr old daughter’s confidence.

She now suffers from anxiety attacks, is paranoid about someone breaking into the house and won’t be anywhere without an adult now. Including in her own home. Even when we’re there, she is still scared to go upstairs by herself and wants the doors and windows all checking.

I’m hoping that she will get some perspective about the probabilities and grow out of it / learn to cope with it.

The money/cost of replacement is insignificant compared to the psychological impacts.

🙁

Talking of plant theft, me and a few mates went riding up north (Sweden) one summer about 8 or 9 years ago. The exit from a well marked, but little used trail was completely blocked by a massive (huge) logging machine.

Mentioned it in the local shop, mad panic as they rang the guy who’d had it nicked the previous night and tried to explain where it was. They apparently nick em, hide em (lots of forest round there, huge areas where no one goes) then drive them out a couple of days later. Once the police are chasing round after the next theft 100km up the road……. or the weekend fights in the local town. They then ferry them out to eastern Europe. Where they disappear.

We bought a house off plan years ago, new estate and were one of the first to buy – turned out to be a nightmare as the developer was a crook and the builder way out of his depth. They wouldn’t let us pull out, despite being ‘finished’ 4 months late.

I use the word finished in it’s loosest possible sense.

Anyway, builder ends up going broke and dodgy Irish developer dude sets up another company, as they do. He starts another new development on the outskirts of a rather dodgy wee ex mining village, but as the estate is almost done, gets a visit from the planning department who stop work immediately as the houses were not put on the proper foundations for boggy area.

This was obviously going to drag on for months, and apparently he was told he would need security, but the tight wee bastard wouldn’t accept it. He obviously didn’t realise how dodgy the local area really was.

Within a matter of a week, every house was bare, not only had they stolen all the bathrooms, kitchens and boilers, they’d even ripped all of the gyproc off and stolen the wiring, pipes, the whole lot. Even stole the paving.

I struggled to shed a tear for the wee dick.

One of my projects on a flood defence barrier had the copper cabling inside a 9 storey tower stolen. They smashed their way to the top, cut it all there and pull it down the racking. During the same incident they also stole several UPS batteries. These batteries are 150kg each and on the 4th floor of an unlit concrete tower. We found half the batteries dropped on the steps.

They probably nicked £3-4k of copper. It cost the taxpayer £80k to put it back, not including the contingency to keep the site operational.

Lots of remote UK infrastructure sites are targeted. It’s dropped off now due to the drop in value of copper. Costs the country millions, mostly in the damage they do gaining access and then on the extra security that has to be installed.

The barrier security has been upgraded now, you couldn’t get in unless you REALLY REALLY wanted to now.

Had loads of plant stolen, brand new pumps worth tens of thousands smashed with sledgehammers to get to the £50 of metal inside. Diesel tanks smashed, stole what they wanted and left the rest to drain into rivers.

Had the wheel from a JCB stolen once. They undid the bolts by hand with a small spanner and got the wheel about half a mile before giving up. It must have taken AGES and hurt them a LOT.

I was sitting in a site hut once and a bloke pulled up in a tipper, got out and picked up an enormous sheet of steel covering an excavation in a live carriage, hefted into the back and drove off. We all just sat there open mouthed, no way anyone was prepared to intervene, that was a serious bit of steel…

Within a matter of a week, every house was bare, not only had they stolen all the bathrooms, kitchens and boilers, they’d even ripped all of the gyproc off and stolen the wiring, pipes, the whole lot. Even stole the paving.

Happened to a house in our street (central Cambridge) a few years back, someone gutted it completely – took all the floor boards, skirting, front door etc!

One of our site teams had a ladder nicked whilst they were on a roof.

My Dad once had about 200m of security fencing nicked!

Some travellers moved on to vacant land 100 yards from our factory and the next morning our big aluminium sign had vanished. Factory Manager and two of the biggest factory lads took a stroll down the road and there was our sign, sticking out from under a tarp. Nobody has any idea how it got there so they took it back.

Many moons ago I worked for a classic camera shop which stocked some very expensive vintage camera equipment.

Over a bank holiday a gang spent a considerable amount of time cutting nice neat square holes in our roof and the two floors below to winch a old bank safe from our ground floor store!

The safe was huge, that big the store had to be designed round it as it was far to heavy to move.

Anyway they managed to make off with it…

Yes, you guessed it, it contained nothing, they left without even taking one camera and left us with a great story and a new skylight 🙂

Police asked how I thought it’d been removed

Reminds me of an account I read a few years ago of someone having a hot rod stolen – after the distraught owner described the vehicle in the massive levels of detail that only an enthusiast who built their own unique creation could – how far the roof had been chopped, the Jag rear axle, the Viva front, the split rim wheels and foolishly sized tyres, the one-off custom interior, the one-off paint blend, the bespoke lighting etc etc he was apparently asked by Plod

Does it have any distinctive features, such as a roof rack or a towbar?

Someone stole a bag of well-matured horse poo from out the front of our old house.

On a more trivial level, I remember many years ago reading in our local paper about some chalk having been stolen from a school.

Police asked how I thought it’d been removed
Reminds me of an account I read a few years ago of someone having a hot rod stolen – after the distraught owner described the vehicle in the massive levels of detail that only an enthusiast who built their own unique creation could – how far the roof had been chopped, the Jag rear axle, the Viva front, the split rim wheels and foolishly sized tyres, the one-off custom interior, the one-off paint blend, the bespoke lighting etc etc he was apparently asked by Plod

Does it have any distinctive features, such as a roof rack or a towbar?
Why does that not surprise me?

Me & matey had been fishing on South Gare pier, Redcar (yeah I know) came back to the car & thought, ‘ah good, at least the wheels are still on’. Got in the car & went to reverse out & noticed someone had nicked the drivers mirror glass.
I reckon it was that dodgy looking scrote in 4 tone Corsa that was hanging about. 🙁

Some people dressed in hi viz with stolen signs and barriers nicked an entire york stone pavement from outside our local museum a few years ago.

If they or a customer wants it enough , no matter what it is it will be taken, despite the risks to all.

Someone stole the large VW badge fixed to the plastic engine cover in my wife’s locked Polo. Still haven’t figured that one out.

In the 80’s someone nicked the Ghia badge off my Dad’s Cortina while we were visiting family in Windsor, almost as random as the theft of 3 valve caps off my Mk2 Escort while parked in Ayr a few years back!

😀 Theres a guy i used to work with whose house was originally built for either the local jeweller or a collector of coins/bullion etc. The safe in the basement is effectively walk in. Or it is now that a previous owner cut all the internal dividers/draws/sections out. It’s about 3m by 2m and tall enough to stand in.

He used to store his garden furniture/BBQ in it during the winter

A friend of a friend had the entire interior of his RS4 estate stolen one night while parked in a ‘nice’ and quite busy bit of London.

25 years ago my father had a Golf GTi. His car had a special import leather interior – no other UK car had the same. He was working at Oxfam in Oxford. One evening his car wasn’t there. Found in a field nearby the next day minus interior, BBS alloys and the world’s biggest mobile phone….

Many years ago had the rear brake cable stolen off my motorbike (drum brakes) Luckily i lived at the bottom off a hill and only found out when i reached the top.

we very nearly lost a loader when I was an apprentice – a guy turned up in site with a low loader and some paperwork to sign, so one of the drivers backed the shovel onto the trailer and helped him strap it down…
Fortunately the gaffer turned up just as the lorry was weighing out and rumbled him!

On a more trivial level, I remember many years ago reading in our local paper about some chalk having been stolen from a school.

Did you grow up on the Isle of Wight, per chance?

Pimp yes it was that Jim Aim.

a month ago I had just decided to put the winter wheels on the van. I got them out the garage and put them in a pile in the drive whilst I had a brew and got the breaker bar out. Came out and someone had stolen one of them, the third one down mind as this had the newest tyre on! I very much doubt it was the right spec and size for their vehicle mind, so what they’d want it for is anyone’s guess. Gits!