As the price of precious metals continues to rise, police are seeing a spike in copper wiring theft across North Brisbane. Copper wire worth thousands of dollars, is being specifically targeted by offenders at construction sites, sporting clubs; energy and water supplies, and more recently electronic messaging signs on major roads/highways.
Police suspect that offenders are selling the copper wiring to scrap metal yards, where it can be reused in things like vehicle motors, computers, construction and machinery.
Police state that offenders may hide in plain sight and look legitimate by wearing high-visibility clothing and driving construction vehicles like utilities, vans and trucks and urge the public to report any suspicious activity.
Not only is this type of offence illegal, it’s also extremely dangerous.
There have been a number of cases locally and nationally resulting in serious injury or death by electrocution while from unauthorised access to electric substations. There can also be impacts to the reliability of electric services caused by surges, fires, explosions or outages.
- Sometime over the weekend of Friday May 26 to Monday May 29, a business in Egar Street, Northgate was allegedly broken into and copper wire stolen from a generator at the location, damaging it beyond repair.
- At around midnight on Monday, May 29, it is alleged an electronic variable messaging sign near the Gateway Motorway at Deagon was targeted and copper wiring stolen.
- Between 3am and 6am on Wednesday, May 31, it is alleged a business on Nudgee Road, Hendra was broken into and had copper wire stolen from the switchboard room, causing significant damage.
The below vehicle was captured on CCTV at the business at Hendra where electrical copper wiring was stolen. The vehicle is a white Isuzu NPR Series, the registration of the vehicle was not able to be clearly seen.
Business security
By regularly assessing your business security, introducing targeted security measures and making changes to everyday behaviours, you can help keep your business safe.
Good business security can be achieved by following these key principles:
- Make it easy for an offender to be seen.
- Make it difficult for an offender to gain entry.
- Make it difficult for an offender to exit with your property.
- Make it difficult for an offender to gain benefit from your property.
How to conduct a business security assessment
A simple and effective way to review your business security is to start from the outside and work inwards, using a layered approach.
For most businesses, there are six layers that can be used to identify existing and desirable security:
Layer one: External perimeter.
Layer two: External walls and access.
Layer three: Internal walls.
Layer four: Internal areas.
Layer five: Property.
Layer six: People.
Using a layered approach to conduct your assessment will enable you to identify the most appropriate layer(s) to introduce additional security measures.
For example, offences that are more likely to occur during opening hours (e.g. theft, fraud, assault) may require treatment to layers inside your business that contribute to detection, access to property and staff safety.
Offences more likely to occur after business hours (e.g. burglary, wilful damage) may require treatment to layers that address vehicle access, exterior security and detection.
For further information, please see the layered approach to business security (PDF).