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Thieves hit Talawanda construction site again

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 7:11 PM Wednesday, January 25, 2012

OXFORD — The site of the new Talawanda High School was hit for the fourth time last week by thieves.

According to Sgt. Jon Varley of the Oxford Police Department, investigators have suspects, but no arrests have been made. Because it is an on-going investigation, Varley could not say if there are multiple suspects.

The most recent theft was reported on Jan. 16 by Treved Exterior Plus, one of the contractors working on the project. Treved owner Ed Oblinger said that a generator worth about $2,500 and tool boxes full of equipment were missing, with a total reported value of $5,435.

The first theft occurred on Sept. 10 when copper piping, three spools of wire and a wheel barrel were stolen when someone forced entry into the new Talawanda High School on Oxford Millville Road.

The largest theft was reported Dec. 7 when representatives of Reddy Electric reported the theft of several more spools of wire valued at more than $16,000.

Holli Morrish, spokeswoman for Talawanda City Schools, said the wire belonged to the contractor left over from the project and was going to be moved to another location.

“The security package was being installed at the time, but there was an issue with the motion detectors that had to be worked out the next day,” she said.

The security package, which includes door alarms and security cameras as well as motion detectors, is now in place and fully functional, she said. The thefts have not affected the construction process.

Varley said the construction site thefts have been a growing problem everywhere, “not just in Oxford,” he said.

“They’re mainly focusing on copper or whatever metal can be taken to the scrap yard, so it’s hard to put a total value on all of the thefts,” he said.

Oblinger said his company takes losses of around $25,000 to $35,000 per year on all their construction sites because of the growing number of thefts and the inability to claim it all on the company’s insurance.

“If you file more than three times in a year, they cancel you,” he said. “So you never get it all back.”

To forestall further break-ins and site thefts, Varley said that the police have been making regular patrols and have had cars parked on the site on occasion.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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