Business owners in the Braid industrial area say they're fed up with constant thefts and are demanding the police department do something to reduce the crime.
Mike Henderson and Ben Fishman both own companies located on Canfor Avenue and both agree thefts in the area are a constant problem that appears to have no end in sight.
Henderson, whose company recycles tires, originally set up shop in Surrey under the Pattullo Bridge but moved to New Westminster so he could work closer to home
"The theft was so bad that I moved over here," he said.
But the problem only got worse when he made the move to the Royal City, Henderson said. He rented out a yard below the Sapperton SkyTrain and was shocked at how rampant crime was in the area.
There were thefts almost every single night, he said.
"Even one night when they put plywood up against Brunette so that people driving by couldn't see that they had brought in cutting torches and trucks and whatnot," he told The Record.
Henderson said thieves would take almost anything of value - tires, truck parts, scrap metals, and even fences.
One Sunday morning last year, he caught someone loading their truck with a bunch of his tools and scraps. Henderson said he blocked the alleged thief's truck so he couldn't leave and called the police.
"Thirty-five minutes later the cops show up," he said. "He comes in and said to me, 'Well, I can't do anything about it,' and I said, 'What do you mean you can't do anything about it?'"
Business Break and Enters
2012 = 10 (7% of total business B&E files)
2013 = 5 (2% of total business B&E files)
2014 = 8 (10% of total business B&Es)(stats provided to June 20, 2014)
Theft Over/Under $5000
2012 = 7 (1% of total theft over/under files)
2013 = 3 (less than 1% of total theft over/under files)
2014 = 5 (2% of total theft over/under) (stats provided to June 20, 2014)
Mischief
2012 = 7 (1% of total mischief files)
2013 = 3 (less than 1% of total mischief files)
2014 = 1 (less than 1% of total mischief files) (stats provided to June 20, 2014)
The police officer explained to Henderson that because the suspect had unloaded the stolen equipment between the time police were called and the officer arrived, there were no grounds to arrest or charge him.
Fed up, Henderson hired a security guard one night to catch the thieves in the act.
"That guy must have fallen asleep," he remembered.
The thieves made off with several rims Henderson had left out as bait, leaving him without a solution to the ongoing issues.
"That was all I could really handle," he said. "So I moved over by the Shell station by the bridge."
Henderson moved his business next door to Fishman's waste management site but the thefts continued.
Fishman said his trucks are broken into on a weekly basis by thieves looking for anything they can find, including fuel, which has been siphoned out the tanks so often he now parks them no more than three inches apart to block out access.
"We shouldn't be dealing with that kind of thing," Henderson said. "I'm paying some pretty good taxes for some police enforcement to fund these cops."
Henderson added he's seen patrol officers drive by the area regularly without ever actually coming right into the industrial area to check things out.
"He whipped by our yard without even looking," he said. "To me, this is a police attitude problem."
According to Henderson, the police have told business owners they're trying to deal with the thefts but Fishman, who has been in the area for about four years, said so far nothing is working.
"They come by at the same time every night, so it's easy for the thieves to say, 'Oh, there's the cops coming, we'll just step off to the side for a few minutes and they'll be gone.' So they have a consistent schedule and they do come by here but they just breeze through in like two minutes," Fishman said.
According to Fishman, police told him they only have four patrol officers on shift at night and calls are prioritized depending on how urgent they are.
"The police can't do anything so the only option is to protect ourselves by any means necessary," he added.
Fishman suggested that if police hung around for a week or so, they're bound to make several arrests.
"These guys that are coming down here are prolific offenders, they know this is like a big candy store, they can just come down and do whatever they want," Fishman said. "If you take these guys that come down here off the street, you're probably taking most of the crime in New West (away)."
According to statistics provided by the New Westminster Police Department, there have been five reported thefts in the Braid industrial area this year, two per cent of total thefts in the city. In 2013, only three thefts were reported in the area.
In an emailed statement to The Record, Sgt. Diana McDaniel said the statistics could indicate that criminal activity is not being reported, which makes it difficult for the department to develop strategic "plans of action to tackle the problem areas," read the statement.
According to McDaniel, the police have been in communication on several occasions with business owners in the area, including last year when a bulletin, indicating police were aware of the crime, was sent to owners. The bulletin also asked that all criminal activity be reported.
More recently, in May, Insp. Phil Eastwood met with business owners in the area and the owner of a security company who informed him of several examples of criminal activity in the area. Eastwood shared this information with the patrol officers at the department and requested "patrol supervisors to advise their members to conduct extra patrols in an attempt to reduce this activity."
"At the end of the day, while we cannot be everywhere at once, we rely heavily on the citizens of this community to be our eyes and ears on the street. We strongly encourage all members of the public to report crimes and suspicious activity, which will allow us to best allocate our resources and accomplish our goal of reducing crime and making New Westminster a safe community," McDaniel said.
