Calgary builders and trade workers are up in arms over an onslaught of crime targeting construction sites in the city, as they say thieves are making off with high-value equipment and building materials at escalating frequency.
Travis Boulanger, owner of TEL construction, said thefts targeting construction sites have become more common within the last year, as he himself has been robbed on four separate occasions within the last two months.
The first incident involved thieves cutting chains meant to secure his equipment, then loading it onto vehicles and driving away. About a week later, he said thieves made off with pallets of expensive building materials being used for custom home builds.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in 15 years working in construction in Calgary,” Boulanger said, noting surveillance video submitted to police captured both incidents.
“They just roll up with trailers or with trucks or vans in broad daylight and they just start loading equipment.”
And he’s not the only one.
“I think you’d be hard pressed to find a crew or a guy that hasn’t been robbed at some point in the last year,” Boulanger added. “It’s so frequent.”
‘There is no police enforcement,’ says builder
Ron Butler, president of New West Luxury Homes, said construction site thefts have become a “major issue” for builders in the last two to three years. Over an eight-month period, he said the value of materials New West had go missing from housing developments was about $250,000.
“It’s just been on a constant uptick of the theft of wire, lumber and exterior building materials,” he said. “It’s an unbelievably crazy issue that the builders are saddled with — with zero help from anyone.”
Butler said enforcement of offences related to construction site thefts appears to be lacking.
“There is no police enforcement,” he said. “Even when we do catch people and give police licence plates, it’s like, ‘what are we gonna do about it?’
“There’s no reason for these thieves not to do it because they don’t get criminalized. They don’t get thrown in jail,” he added. “It’s infuriating, frustrating — and there’s no help.”
Multi-unit housing under construction in Capitol Hill in 2024.
Boulanger said he has reported multiple incidents to police but has been told there is not much that officers can do.
“Even with (thieves) on camera and the licence plates . . . they’re basically just saying nothing can be done,” he said. “I spoke to the police and they said this is just a weekly occurrence (and) they don’t have the manpower to go into every single case.
“It’s just kind of unfortunate that it’s happening, but this is the state of construction in Calgary right now.”
According to Butler, a lack of enforcement has left victims to take matters into their own hands to try and recover stolen property, with some putting trackers on equipment and materials so their location can be traced.
“We’ve had our own guys do their own sting operations to try and get their stuff back,” he said.
He said the costs extend beyond the direct value of stolen goods to include indirect costs tied to project delays.
‘It’s big business for some of these criminals,’ says police sergeant
Calgary police Sgt. Nick Wilsher said thefts at construction sites are an ongoing issue for officers. He said police see a seasonal trend with this type of criminality, marked by an uptick in site thefts during warming months.
“Certainly as spring and summer come in and construction does pick up, we are more aware that these thefts do become more prevalent,” he said.
“It’s big business for some of these criminals,” he added. “A lot of it is just opportunity. They know what they need to steal, so they kind of have a list of the items that they want, and then they’re just driving around construction sites looking for things that they could possibly take.”
Calgary Police Service Sgt. Nick Wilsher speaks to media on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021.
Wilsher said the thieves often come onto sites wearing high-visibility vests and hard hats as a form of disguise.
“If you’re working on the site and you see people coming on and taking materials out of secure lockers or anything like that, you need to challenge them,” he said. “If you don’t recognize them as people that are working either for your team or working on the side, you need to challenge that.
“They’re just seeing what they can take before somebody spots them and calls them out.”
Wilsher urges builders to always lock up their materials even when they are still on site. “You’re gonna be busy, you’re working, so always make sure your stuff is secure. And if you see anything suspicious, report it.”
Thefts ‘likely highly organized,’ says Calgary Construction Association president
Bill Black, president and CEO of the Calgary Construction Association, said the problem started to get worse in recent years after the pandemic. He tied the growing problem to affordability woes and rising construction activity, particularly housing developments, which are harder to secure during construction than commercial sites.
“We’ve had really high volume of construction activity here, especially housing, and housing developments are hard to secure during construction,” he said.
Black said he believes the site thefts are part of sophisticated, highly organized operations and not random opportunists.
“There’s no doubt, on the scale it’s been happening . . . that it’s likely highly organized,” he said. “Whoever’s doing it is either a customer of the product or knows customers for the product.”
“When these organized theft rings develop, they can create some pretty sophisticated logistics to go along with the volume they’re taking.”
President and CEO of the Calgary Construction Association Bill Black.
He pointed to a compounding of costs facing builders who are targeted by this type of crime, which ultimately gets passed on to home buyers.
“The ripple effects are significant,” he said. “It really does start to have multiple impacts on the cost of work, the efficiency of work, the speed of work, etc.”
Black said the CCA has sat down with Calgary police to talk about the issue and that there is movement towards a stronger collaboration between CPS and industry to tackle it.
“If you’re a tradesperson, you get paid by the hour. If somebody steals your tools, you’re down until you can get your tools replaced, but you could be out of pocket $10,000 to $15,000 worth of tools.”