 300 cable thefts in first 3 months
LAST month, metal items worth $35,000 were stolen from various locations.
Electrical cables, wires and components which cost $20,000 were missing from a warehouse at Chin Bee Avenue, while a Lim Chu Kang farm lost $10,000 worth of cables from its office and store room.
StarHub Cable Vision lost $5,000 in metal box covers, which had been placed along roads, house cables and wires.
There were 300 theft cases within the first three months of this year - an average of three cases a day.
Compared to the same period last year, it's an increase of 60 per cent.
Last year, there were 1,092 reports of cables, signages and drain covers being stolen - almost double the 526 cases in 2005.
All this was prompted by the sharp rise in scrap metal prices.
Three years ago, copper cost about $5 a kg, but now it's $10.
Thieves are getting bolder, stealing even during the day.
On 21 Apr afternoon, five men cut a hole in the fence of the old Serangoon Fire Station. When confronted by the security guard, the men beat him up.
After the guard managed to escape, the men ripped the wiring and stripped off rubber covers to steal the copper cables and wires.
In the same month, more than 100 stainless steel bicycle racks worth more than $7,000 were stolen from void decks in Ang Mo Kio.
Besides damaging property, metal thieves also endanger safety.
The 50 copper covers stolen from dry risers in Upper Changi Road flats mean that firemen will have to find another way to attach their water hoses if high-rise fires occur.
PROTECT YOUR CABLES
The police are educating property owners on how to prevent and detect these thefts, such as by installing burglar alarms and closed-circuit television cameras.
Residents, especially those in new or recently-upgraded housing estates, should be alert for metal thefts as they are in the best position to detect such crimes.
A resident who called police after seeing two men acting suspiciously at a void deck was key in getting the men arrested. They had used a cutter to steal a strip of copper lightning conductor.  To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. | 
Linear Mode
