Sheriff's Office creates construction crimes unit

A generator worth $3,000, pipes priced at more than $300 and an air compressor worth $1,500 vanish from similar construction sites in south Lee County.

"Nothing is safe on a construction site," Lee County Sheriff's Lt. Ron Curtis said. "Everything from microwave ovens to diesel fuel (has been taken)."

To combat the increase in these crimes, the Lee County Sheriff's Office on Oct. 1 created the Construction Site Crimes Unit, charged with investigating thefts and educating builders and the public about the prevalence of these types of crimes.

The unit is believed to be the only one of its kind in Florida, said Tom Berlinger, spokesman for the Florida Sheriffs Association, and Paul Rumbley, president of the Florida Police Chiefs Association.

Johnny Shaver already has called on the unit to investigate a crime. As superintendent of Kaye Homes in Naples, Shaver has had construction equipment ripped off from multiple houses he is constructing.

Earlier this month, about $225 worth of wooden railing sections were removed from a $230,000 home under construction at 11781 Red Hibiscus Drive in Bonita Springs. A window was broken with a rock, and Lee County Sheriff's Detective Lee Bushong said he suspects that youngsters are the culprits.

In Golden Gate City in Collier County, well equipment costing $3,000 was removed from a Kaye home after it was installed.

"They had to have a truck and hacksaw to cut through the PVC pipe," Shaver said. "It's bad. I know Lee County's worse than Collier County. The neighbors are nice. It's not the neighbors. There are other builders and when they need materials... ."

Police across the country and in Lee County found that construction company workers are pilfering tools, equipment and building materials to use at their own sites, Curtis said.

"Seventy percent of all these crimes are perpetrated by other builders and contractors," Curtis said.

Contractors and subcontractors buy equipment and materials to use while constructing buildings. Bushong said some contractors steal materials, tools and equipment so they save money building the home, and then are paid for the work. They pocket twice the cash, he said.

Bushong said since the unit formed last month, he has arrested six people in connection with construction site thefts. Curtis said the unit closed five investigations last month.

But the workload is greater than expected.

Until Oct. 1, these crimes were investigated by the Sheriff's Office's property crimes unit. This unit handles about 1,800 cases each year, Curtis said, and local builders voiced concern that some were getting "raked over the coals." Curtis researched nationwide construction site thefts for about one month and found that the average caseload was about 18 thefts per month.

"For the first month we had 47 cases spilt between two detectives," Curtis said. "At the moment, we have enough work for four detectives and four deputies."

But the unit has two detectives and two deputies to handle the flow of cases that is expected to increase as the local building boom flourishes.

Most thefts occur in areas that are rapidly developing. Right now that hot spot is Estero, Curtis said. Some items, like tools, are stolen during the day because often many subcontractors workers move in and out of a building that no one notices when tools disappear, Curtis said. Larger equipment like air conditioning units, backhoes and plywood often are stolen at night.

The price of plywood has doubled because of the war in Iraq and hurricane threats, Curtis said. Backhoes often are shipped to South America to tear down rain forests and for work needed after mudslides, he said.

"There's so much opportunity," Curtis said. "It's all about opportunity. A lot of merchandise is sent to pawn shops."

Residential areas are hardest hit, Bushong said. Neighborhoods under construction with few or no residents make catching thieves much more difficult. Often there is no forensic evidence to point detectives to a suspect, he said. A lone set of tire tracks at night becomes crossed with workers' trucks and thick-soled boots, nixing that piece of evidence. Fingerprints also might point to a dead end because equipment and materials can pass through so many hands at a site, he said.

"Nobody is really watching," Bushong said. "By the time we get the call, it's already in a house somewhere."

Sometimes deputies catch a break and a neighbor reports a suspicious truck and officers arrest a thief, Bushong said. Buyers of pawned goods also may report that they bought a stolen item and police can track down where the tools came from and who might have stolen them, he said.

Most builders' insurance companies cover the losses, but home builders also pass the cost along to their buyers. Michael Reitmann, executive vice president of the Lee Building Industry Association, said 11/2 percent of the cost of every home funds builders' losses during construction site thefts.

Reitmann said for the past 18 years, the association has offered a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a construction site thief. The Sheriff's Office has partnered with the association to offer a program called Site Watch, which is modeled after a similar program with the Collier County Sheriff's Office.

Under the Lee County program, builders can register their construction sites, for free, with the Sheriff's Office. They receive a special code number for each site, and officers patrol each site once or twice a day. Curtis said of the 40 sites registered, one reported a theft in October.

Collier County Sheriff's Cpl. Lee Van Gelder, coordinator for Collier's Site Watch program, said 55 sites are registered in Collier County. Collier's program began in December 2000, and builders are charged $50 for their first registered construction site, and $15 for every subsequent new site, he said. During the past three years, 30 registered sites have been burglarized, he said.

The approximately 25 construction site thefts reported each month in Collier are handled by the office's criminal investigation unit, Van Gelder said. The amount of construction site thefts in Collier appears to be dropping, he added.

Reitmann said association members discussed creating a Site Watch program in Lee County two years ago with members of CrimeStoppers, and he hopes the program and new unit serves as a theft deterrent.

"Maybe it will serve as a model," he said.