Protect Your Home from Job Site Theft

Job site theft is a rampant, and growing, problem that costs the construction industry more than $1 billion a year, according to the National Association of Home Builders and the National Equipment Register. But the problem isn’t limited to new houses under construction — a home remodeling job is just as vulnerable. Here are some ways to secure your job site.

Every item on your job site is on a thief’s shopping list. Matt Dunston, developer of The Preserve at Walden, an 86-lot subdivision near Colorado Springs, CO, knows from experience. Over several months in 2007, six builders in his subdivision lost roughly $50,000 worth of tools and material — everything from tools and appliances to air conditioners and pallets of cultured stone — before he hired a private investigator to track down the thieves. The stone was a bit of a head-scratcher for Dunston, given its weight. “You have to be a very motivated thief to steal cultured stone,” he says.

With the rising fees paid by recyclers for copper, the theft of copper wiring and pipe is especially prevalent. It’s such a serious problem that more than 20 states have passed legislation regulating its sale to recycling centers. In Knoxville, TN, the police department has even created a special task force, the Metal Theft Unit. And not surprisingly, thieves aren’t very considerate about the damage they cause. Police reports show they’ll rip a wall apart to get to the copper wiring or pipes behind it, to say nothing of destroying air conditioners, furnaces, or water heaters. In Knoxville, a local television station reported that thieves did $25,000 worth of damage to a condominium project that was under construction to steal about $200 worth of copper.