Lighting never strikes twice...

So the b******s returned. At the stroke of 12pm, I heard a small thud and immediately sensed something was wrong. Looking out of the window, I spotted the leader from yesterday’s “visit”, legging it down the road. Ran downstairs, grabbing the mobile as I struggled to get a pair of shoes. Strange how everything is so much more difficult when you’re in a rush!

Punched 999 into the phone before entering the site, just in case I ended up finding someone on site, two days in a row. There, as a clear testament to their desperation, the reinforced panel which had been installed last night, was gently prised to the side, allowing free entry into the Link. Dialled 999 and went through the same motions as yesterday. However, today, we had two police cars within 3-4 minutes and to cut a long story, two suspects arrested within 30 minutes.

Whether there were anyone else “helping out” – yesterday there were four – we’ll probably never know. But between them, this crew managed to steal a very large electric saw, weighing 20-30 kilos, plus two boxes of power tools, altogether worth somewhere near £1,000. The saw was recovered from the guys, neatly wrapped in plastic they had stolen from a roll of mineral wool insulation in the garage – so two pieces of evidence linking these to our site. Later, the policed returned to retrace the steps of the soon-to-be-convicts, to find the other tools.

Having secured the site, but this time using greater more reinforcement, we’re now exploring whether we can pick up some slightly used landmines from eBay. If not, we may position some buckets of red gloss paint in strategic places. At least we can then follow their footprints…