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Construction sites robbed |
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Thursday, 17 January 2008 |
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By Mike Gervais
Register Staff 1-15-2008
Late-night burglaries at two separate sites in Inyo County have local law enforcement authorities seeking help from the public.
The Inyo County Sheriff’s Department received reports from two construction sites on Friday, advising they were burglarized sometime Thursday night or Friday morning between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. Currently there are no witnesses, but the Sheriff’s Department is hoping that someone from the public will come forward with information.
The highway construction site at the intersection of Blackrock Road and U.S. 395 and a construction site at the Fort Independence campground were both burglarized.
According to Inyo County Sheriff’s Detective Andy Marsh, the thieves parked just off of U.S. 395 and Blackrock Road, cut the lock on the gated construction yard and stole a number of items totaling more than $30,000.
“The one down in Independence, it appears they parked behind the gas station” and proceeded the same way, cutting locks on gated construction yards and storage containers, Marsh said.
It appears the thief or thieves were after tools used at both construction sites. At the Independence campground, the bandits made off with a portable welder, a generator, a gas-powered compactor and miscellaneous tools. The loss at that site is estimated at about $5,000.
At the highway construction site, the thieves made off with five “Whacker” gas-powered compactors, a generator and miscellaneous tools.
The contractor at that site, Skanska Construction, Marsh said, has serial numbers for most of the larger items that were stolen.
“We’re still waiting to see if they have that information from the Independence site,” said Marsh.
The tools with serial numbers, he said, may be recovered if they are ever located because the serial numbers will be put into a national database that can be accessed by law enforcement agencies throughout the country.
Some of the miscellaneous hand tools and power tools that were stolen from both sites were marked with spray paint for identification, but, Marsh said, that won’t help law enforcement identify them through the national stolen property database.
At this point, the Sheriff’s Department doesn’t have much more to go on.
“We do know they hit both of the sites at the same time,” Marsh said, explaining that at quitting time onThursday, employees from both sites closed shop and locked the gates, but come Friday morning, employees from both sites were on the phone with local authorities reporting burglaries.
Investigators believe at this time that the burglaries were related, considering the similarities found at both sites. The thieves cut a total of five locks at both sites and seem to have been after heavy construction equipment.
“This is a problem construction companies face wherever they go,” Marsh said.
“Based on the size of these objects” that were stolen, such as the generators and compactors, “those items alone are going to fill up a pickup truck” or possibly even a box truck, Marsh said.
Sheriff’s investigators are asking anyone who may have seen anything suspicious at either of the construction sites on Thursday, Jan. 10 or early Friday, Jan. 11 call Inyo County Sheriff’s Detective Andy Marsh at (760) 876-5606 or Inyo County Sheriff’s Detective Sergeant Jeff Hollowell at (760) 873-7887.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 22 February 2008 )
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