Another Thief in Hot Water

With a recent spike in theft and burglaries in Golden Bay and Madora Bay, PACT Site Security investigators installed several GPS tracking devices on members sites in these areas.

At 0148 hours on Saturday 30/11/19 a hot water system fitted with GPS tracking device was stolen from a Homestart building site in Noreena Avenue, Golden Bay.

After the GPS tracking identified a residential address in the Singleton area and PACT site Security investigator attended the area. Further examination of Noreena Avenue and surrounding building sites identified another two building sites where the hot water units had stolen from their installed position.

After liaising with Mandurah Police, a search warrant was executed on a premises in Singleton and 3 stolen hot water units were located. A female at the address admitting that she had stolen them from building sites and was arrested. Also located at the premise was a package of colorbond guttering which was later confirmed stolen from house in Port Kennedy area.

After the search of the premises Police conveyed 3 hot water units and the female offender to Mandurah Police Station.

This is where it became a little interesting, the GPS tracking device indicated that it had not left the premises with Police. Police were advised that the GPS tracker remained at the property and a short time later the police re-attended for a second search..

Unfortunately, this search also failed to locate any other stolen hot water systems. Shortly after the Police departed the premises the GPS tracking was again activated. This time travelling to a bush area off a beach side car park on Foreshore Drive Singleton. Police attended this area but but were unable to locate the hot water units.

PACT Site Security investigators attended the last known position of the GPS tracking unit and located all three Bosch hot water units hidden in bushland a short distance from the beach side car park. The property was recovered in good condition and will be returned to the builder.  

This is on the back of a similar incident in the Banksia Grove Estate on 19/11/19 where offenders broke into a building site stealing all boxed whitegoods. GPS warning stickers on the boxes prompted the offenders to hide the goods in a vacant land area. A fitted GPS tracker indicated the movements of the goods and identified a potential residential property in Banksia Grove where the goods were first taken before being hidden approximately 100 metres from the premise. All property was recovered and we continue to liaise with Joondalup detectives who are conducting further inquiries into the matter.

PACT Site Security GPS tracking strategy continues to provide results to its members and the wider building and construction industry community. BGC Housing Group has been at the forefront of this strategy purchasing numerous GPS tracking units which are managed through their PACT Site Security membership.

This again highlights the importance of reporting all building and construction site crime to identify high crime areas. It is without doubt that offenders involved in these crimes are repeat offenders, stealing goods from sites that can be easily disposed of through social media buy and sell pages, Gumtree and their criminal networks.

The accurate reporting of crime in conjunction with proactive and reactive theft reduction strategies will ultimately reduce crime. The results speak for themselves, recovery of over $7000 worth of assets, in the last two weeks, Arrest of offenders and making them think twice before stealing from a PACT Site Security members site.

Police Forensics examine stolen hot water units recovered from bushland in Singleton after being stolen from building sites in Golden Bay.

Property recovered from a Banksia Grove burglary.