Readers, and security experts, also recommended keeping sites well lighted, storing tools and equipment in job boxes or locked storage containers, taking tools home at the end of every workday, and installing fencing to limit access to property. Other ideas included using motion-activated lights and security cameras or alarm systems, installing security systems when appliances are installed, or waiting to install appliances and air-conditioning units until the buyer moves in. One reader found that thieves were getting into finished homes through side doors that were hidden from street view. He now leaves the garage doors up so thieves can’t hide behind them. That makes it easier for a security guard who patrols the neighborhood to keep a close eye on the houses. If a garage door is down, he instantly knows that he needs to investigate.
Just-in-time delivery and installation can make a tremendous difference because it reduces the amount of building materials sitting on the site, says Todd M. Boley, a former custom home builder and now construction practice director for Menlo Park, Calif.–based Protiviti, a risk consulting and audit company. Be mindful of having materials delivered to a secure environment, such as a jobsite container with a shipping-container lock instead of a padlock. At the very least, store materials behind a locked door, “not in the living room in front of a window,” Boley says. “I see that a bunch.”
Also, communicate with your subs about your expectations for a secure jobsite. That includes making sure doors are locked when they leave at the end of the day and not leaving materials lying around.
“The electrician is a famous one [for not securing the site],” Boley notes. “They’ve got their spools of copper wire; they don’t finish in a day, and they leave the spools on the floor. Copper has ‘take me’ written on it.”
On the construction side, Charlotte, N.C.–based HouseRaising has gone to PEX water-supply piping on many of its projects as an alternative to copper “so there is nothing to steal,” says company president Greg Wessling. “You know how you go to a store and it says, ‘No cash left in the drawer overnight?’ Maybe we need signs that say, ‘No copper pipes.’ ”
HouseRaising’s electricians also have “gotten wise,” Wessling says, drilling through studs when they’re installing wires instead of stapling them to the bottom of boards, to make them harder to steal.
High-Tech Fixes
Derek Powell, a retired police officer and private investigator in Monument, Colo., tells builders flat out that they can’t rely on the police to solve their theft issues. The police prioritize violent crime over thefts, and jobsite theft is notoriously difficult to solve because there are rarely witnesses and the items that are stolen are easy to get rid of. His advice is to make your site less attractive to thieves by securing the site as quickly as possible.
“Include an alarm system in the house,” Powell says. “Build it in when you’re building the house. Get it in and get it operational. Then, once you have the entrances and exits secured with windows and doors, put on heavy locks. Too bad if it inconveniences the subs.”
He wishes the builder who built his house had thought that way. Before the doors were installed, the electrician ran all the wiring to the panel in the garage. Thieves cut out the copper wiring and “left all the wires from everywhere in the house 10 feet short of the box,” he says.
Fortunately, today’s technology, in the form of wireless and Web-enabled security cameras and alarm systems, as well as battery-operated, remote-controlled GPS systems, is helping builders take more control of jobsite security.
“One of the big issues with construction site security is that it typically requires a phone line for monitoring,” says Mary Knebel, vice president of marketing and business development for McLean, Va.–based Alarm.com. “Most homes under construction don’t have phone lines,” she adds. “Beyond that, the traditional system is only monitoring what’s going on for a small percentage of the day, and [only] if the last one who leaves remembers to arm it. So they don’t work really well on construction sites.”
Another problem is that police often won’t respond to a site without a street address, says Chris Allen, vice president and general manager of DeWalt Industrial Tool Co.’s Security Business Group. DeWalt currently offers two products for jobsite security: SiteLock, a portable alarm system, and MobileLock, a combination alarm and GPS tracking device.
Systems such as Alarm.com’s don’t require a phone line and constantly monitor a wide array of information such as whether the back door of the construction trailer is propped open, whether there’s a water leak, or whether there’s motion in a kitchen at 4 a.m. The alarm system will then notify whomever the builder designates, by phone, e-mail, or both. The system can be checked, armed, or disarmed remotely “so you don’t have to deal with the police responding to a false alarm,” Knebel says. “Those are a big deal—a lot of jurisdictions will fine you [for false alarms].”
On the Hunt
In an attempt to find out if one of his employees or subs was robbing his sites, Nelson decided to try DeWalt’s MobileLock. The wallet-sized unit calls his phone if the device is moved or tampered with and allows Nelson to track its position. He installed them inside several refrigerators, the only appliances in his houses that aren’t built-ins. And then he waited. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long.
Turning on his phone one morning at 7 a.m., Nelson saw not one, but two alerts, one from 4:30 a.m. and another from an hour later. He logged on to his user page on DeWalt’s Web site and located the units. Nelson and his senior project manager went into action, driving 30 miles, following the units’ signal until they were standing in front of a house with a closed garage.
There was nothing from the street that would have given the thief away. So Nelson and his crew provided a little assistance. A co-worker paged the two units to set off their alarms.
“We could hear them in the garage,” he says.
That was enough to give police officers probable cause to obtain a warrant to search the garage—which, to his relief, did not belong to any of his employees or subcontractors. Nelson’s appliances were inside.
“From a computer and satellite image, we were able to pinpoint a location and find our stuff 30 miles from the jobsite,” Nelson says. “It was awesome. It was so awesome, I can’t tell you.” B