It was a significant hit for a small family-owned business that has them frustrated and disappointed.
Oosterveld Heating & Air Conditioning was broken into over the weekend, with more than $25,000 worth of tools stolen and at least $12,000 in damage to company vans.
“We all work hard and invest in the business and the community and somebody just comes along and takes your stuff,” operations manager Mark Pooles said. “It just takes away some of your faith in humanity.”
Many of the items stolen from each truck are highly specific to the industry, and include full tool kits holding drills, Sawzalls, pipe shears and nitrogen cylinders.
They were alerted about the break-in by a parent of one of their employees, who cleans the shop on weekends.
“We thought maybe they tried to jimmy a lock or something like that," Pooles said. But what they found was much worse, with equipment stolen from eight company vans, which had been damaged to the point of being inoperable.
“So we called the police, they came and were here for a few hours going over the (camera) footage.”
They were able to capture two people on camera, but they were wearing hoods and masks, and knew where the cameras were. Poole suspects they’d been to the shop previously to scope things out.
Based on the camera footage, he said the thieves were on their lot for about 20 minutes.
“They had sledgehammers, they had crowbars and pry bars, and just smashed everything.”
The vans are insured, but he’s not sure how much of the equipment lost will be covered by insurance. Plus, he said, some of the workers left their personal (and uninsured) tools in their vans that night, and those were also stolen.
“When that machinery goes missing, it’s a significant financial burden. It’s gonna hurt (to replace and fix everything).”
But there is also the added loss of business to consider; Monday was a write-off as they cleaned up the mess left by the thieves and tried to repair and replace vans and equipment to get back to work in the meantime.
In the 15 years Pooles has been with the company, he said they’ve had just two break-ins, and only in the last two and a half years.
“I used to leave all my tools in the van and never had a problem, never even gave it a second thought to be honest. Even some days, I’d leave my van doors open and everything was fine.”
They installed their security cameras and motion detector lights when the first incident happened a few years ago, but he said that doesn’t seem to deter anybody. Now he knows they have to take added measures, but he’s not sure what.
“We’re not sure what to do. We want this place to be open and welcoming, we don’t want to have to put up walls and barbed wire and fences and stuff like that, because that’s not inviting for customers or employees.”
He said they need something, whether it be a fence or cameras monitored by a security company. But he said even that doesn’t guarantee this won’t happen again.
“I was talking to another local business about this, and his business is monitored by a security company. But when the thieves come in, they’re so quick that by the time the company sees them and calls the police to dispatch out, they’re gone.”
Thee have been numerous incidents of workplace and construction site tool thefts lately.
Guelph police media relations coordinator Scott Tracey said the theft of tools from workplaces and construction sites has been “an ongoing issue for some time now.”
The frequency of these incidents was part of the reason they formed the Guelph Police Service Break Enter Auto Theft (B.E.A.T.) Unit, which he said has already been successful in identifying and arresting individuals involved in the theft and trafficking of stolen property,” as well as returning much of that stolen property to the rightful owner.
Tracey said police encourage people to continue doing what they can to lessen their odds of being victimized, “ensuring tools and other items are secured properly and considering parking vehicles indoors or in well-lit places and installing surveillance cameras to deter thieves.”
He also said owners should record serial numbers of their items and consider marking them in some way, for example with a company name, to increase their chances of having property returned if it is stolen.
Anyone with information regarding the two men and the stolen equipment are asked to contact Guelph police.
