Put the finger on crime

Police want reports of suspicious after-hours activity on building sites after recovering a “large hoard” of stolen tradie items at St Leonards.
Power tools, scaffolding, trailers, building materials, three motorbikes and two other vehicles were among last week’s haul, police said.
Officers arrested a female over the Ward Street bust then released her pending summons, police said.
“Investigations are still ongoing and likely further arrests will be made in relation to the matter.”
The investigators obtained a search warrant for the residential address after reports of “several” building-site burglaries across the Bellarine Peninsula.
Police called on residents around Geelong to be “pro-active” in fighting crime on local building sites.
Witnesses could report suspicious activity to support the region’s Building Site Crime Prevention Initiative, police said.
The first potential indication of suspicious activity was people on-site after dark or outside normal building hours.
Other indicators could be unknown people “loitering” around sites then returning later, or individuals removing materials from rear or side doors, police advised.
Witnesses could also watch for people damaging or removing fixtures on-site, or loading recently delivered items into vehicles with obscured or missing registration numbers.
Police also urged neighbours to consider “unusual circumstances” during daytime, such as an apparent carpenter taking away a hot-water unit.
“As a general guide, ask yourself (whether) the description of the goods removed match the person seen removing them?
“If at night, why would a person be removing materials when the site is in darkness?”
Anyone witnessing suspicious activity or vandalism should record descriptions of suspects and any registration numbers then “immediately” report the details by phoning triple-zero, police said.
Theft from building sites emerged as a significant local crime issue in recent years as the region underwent a construction boom with the opening of numerous new residential developments.
In 2013 the Indy reported that local police had launched a campaign utilising surveillance cameras and invisible ink to catch on-site thieves. The initiative followed a rise in site thefts at emerging estates at Armstrong Creek, Ocean Grove and Clifton Springs.
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) estimated the same year that the thefts were costing on average $1500 per site.
“With construction levels around 50,000 new starts per year, this amounts to a massive $75 million raw cost passed on to consumers,” the HIA’s regional director said at the time.