Police act over metal theft 'epidemic'

12:20pm Friday 4th July 2008

METAL door handles have been mysteriously going missing from shops and businesses across Trowbridge.

The spate of thefts in the county town and across the county have led police to set up a special operation to tackle an epidemic of metal thefts, with stolen material often sold on for scrap.

On Thursday a row of businesses in St George's Works, off Silver Street, had all their door handles taken overnight, as did the Wiltshire Times' offices in Duke Street.

Shaun Henley, of Fleur-e-Scent florists, said: "I got here for work and when I arrived everybody was standing outside their premises - they said 'someone's stolen all our door handles'.

"One of the ladies said she had an adjustable spanner and we managed to get the doors open because fortunately the idiots had left the connecting bar in.

"If they'd have taken that we really would have been stuck.

"At weekends the gates to this road are closed but because it was a week night they were open.

"The businesses in St George's are all new and actively forming a community.

"We are obviously worried that if we are subjected to criminal attention by selfish, mindless individuals our little haven could potentially suffer."

Door handles were also stolen from Seaterra estate agents, Upsalls property management and the hairdressers in St George's Works. The landlord of all the properties there has since replaced them for his tenants.

Geoff Dineley, of Silver Street News, said thieves stole the brass handle from his back door.

It meant the milk and newspaper delivery he has each morning had to be left in the alleyway because the delivery man could not open the door.

On June 22, thieves also broke into a building site in Duke Street and stole various metal items.

The thieves stole lead flashing from the roofs and copper pipes and electrical cabling from inside the flats.

Nick Preedy, site manager for Bellfield Homes, who are building 22 flats and two shops at the former Lester's Garage site, said: "We have had to put a security guard on at night to stop it happening again. They took all the copper tails that were ready for radiators to be fitted to them, forced their way in through a door and took the new electrical wiring out - they must have been in there a couple of hours."

He estimated the lead would cost him £50 a sheet plus the labour and would take two men three days to do it all again.

Wiltshire Police has launched Operation Herald as it is becoming so concerned about the levels of metal thefts in the county.

PC Bob Salter, of Melksham Crime Management Unit, said: "We are getting loads and loads of these thefts at the moment, it's becoming an epidemic."

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