Halifax Regional Police are encouraging business owners and operators in the Burnside Business Park to be extra vigilant following a recent rash of break & enters and thefts in the area.
Since June 5, police say they have received seven reports involving break-ins or thefts from businesses in the Burnside area. All of the incidents have happened overnight and mostly on the weekends.
“Primarily at construction sites and tool rental agencies, things like that have been broken into,” said Inspector Richard Lane, Halifax Regional Police.
“Thieves seem to be targeting containers in locked compounds. We’ve seen an increase in fences being cut, the locks cut off the containers and the containers entered. They’re looking for or seem to be looking for things they can carry, like tools.”
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Eastern Turf Equipment was one of the business that was recently hit.
“I was coming out to close up everything, to make sure it was all closed up for the weekend last weekend and I noticed that several of the containers were open and when I went to check, we noticed that all the locks were gone off and they were cut off and thrown in the bushes,” said John Urquhart, who works for the company.
Urquhart says this is the first time in recent memory that Eastern Turf has had to deal with an incident like this.
Fortunately, the would-be thieves didn’t get away with anything.
“There’s nothing in there they could lift to get out without a forklift. So we were lucky,” he said.
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Police say it’s unusual to see so many break and enters and thefts in the same area in such a short time frame.
“I think there’s a market for tools,”said Lane.
“As we all know, certain types of tools, especially tools that are of a higher quality are work money on the street so I think that’s why they are being targeted and construction companies generally have good quality tools for their day-to-day business.”
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Police say they are stepping up their patrols in the Burnside area and are asking businesses owners to be vigilant.
“Any type of security systems, fence security or video security, use cut-resistant locks or mechanisms that hamper the thieves ability to get at the locks to cut them. As well, you can put things in front of the shipping containers that would prevent them from opening the doors,” said Lane.
Officers are also asking people to take note of the serial numbers of their tools.
“Record the make, model and any serial numbers on tools. We often come across tools and other items that we’re very confident are stolen because of the person that has them but because there’s no report of that particular report of that serial number being filed so if you can take the time to record the serial number, make, model and number of tool that would certainly help,” said Lane.
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Meanwhile, Urquhart has this message for those who are breaking into businesses in the business park.
“Not a great way to make a living,” he said.
“You’re hurting everybody by trying to do this stuff.”
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