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You’ve probably heard of strong-arm robberies, but what about strong-arm burglaries?
One might wonder if the thief or thieves who removed commercial-grade heating/ventilation/air conditioning units from a construction site over the weekend and from a local bar and restaurant just last night are professional weight lifters. Or maybe they had a portable crane in the back of a truck.
Plains Township police say someone removed the HVAC unit from the side of a new Dunkin’ Donuts under construction on South River Street sometime between Saturday and Sunday.
The unit is about 6 feet wide and 6 feet long and weighs about 700 pounds. It’s valued at $5,000, police said.
And Brian Urbanis, owner of Bart & Urby’s Downtown Bar & Bistro on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre, reported to city police today that thieves stole the restaurant’s new HVAC unit that sat outside the facility.
Urbanis said the unit was probably about two-thirds the size of the one described in the Dunkin’ Donuts report and valued at about $1,500. He suspects that a crew of thieves removed the unit, given that a forklift had to be used to unload it for installation outside the bar and bistro.
“It was attached to the building, but it wasn’t hooked up yet. We were going to start using it this summer, but unfortunately, it looks like they got to it first,” Urbanis said.
Hopefully, a security camera trained on the area where the HVAC unit was located captured some footage that will help police catch the brazen criminals, Urbanis said.
According to CageItUp.com, a company in Georgia that manufactures custom-built HVAC cages, hundreds of homeowners, business owners, apartment complexes, town homes and corporations are victims of HVAC theft every day.
CageItUp.com says thieves are after the copper tubing inside the units because scrap copper can be sold for quick cash.
The theft of copper pipe and tubing from residences and businesses has been an ongoing problem in the area for some time.
Anyone with information about either local theft is asked to call Plains Township police at 570-829-3432 or Wilkes-Barre police at 570-208-4200 or dial 911.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include information about the most recent theft from Bart & Urby’s.