LOCAL building firms have again fallen victim to thieves intent on stealing heavy plant machinery worth thousands of pounds.
Two diggers - one valued at £24,000, the other at £13,000 - were taken from two separate sites on Winchester Road, Four Marks, overnight last Tuesday. At one site, a white truck was seen loading a digger onto its rear before driving toward the Farnham area.
The words "TREE SURGEONS" were said to be sign-written in green lettering across the vehicle's body.
"These diggers are not road legal and it would require a flatbed truck to remove the diggers from the site," said a police spokesperson.
"If anyone saw any diggers being loaded onto flatbed trucks or anyone acting suspiciously in the Winchester Road area, please contact Pc Cole at Alton Police Station."
Two days later, during Friday night, garden tools and a digger, worth a total of £7,600, were stolen from a utility area on Whitedown Lane, Alton.
These latest thefts come after Hampshire Constabulary launched an initiative in late August aimed at cracking down on organised groups targeting high-value building equipment left on-site.
If efforts to stamp out the growing number of thefts from sites across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are to be successful, police said people must be watchful for items such as diggers, generators and excavators being transported at unusual times of the night.
Since April 1 this year an estimated £1 million-worth of plant machinery has been stolen from sites across the two counties.
Almost all of the thefts have taken place overnight from construction sites, with fork-lifts, trailers and dumper trucks being among the items commonly taken.
Stealing machinery of this size requires large lorries and an organised group of criminals, but the rewards are clearly high.
In August alone, around £45,000-worth of machinery was stolen from the Alton area.
And in March, the new £13 million Onyx-developed material recycling plant (MRF), in Froyle, had £70,000 worth of assorted plant machinery lifted from a secure unit after an unknown number of criminals broke through security gates before stealing two diggers worth £28,000 between them, a £23,000 roller and various other industrial power tools totalling £20,000.
While this type of theft is usually non-violent, owners lives can be occasionally be put at risk if they catch the thieves in the act.
In April, a local farmer from East Worldham was knocked over attempting to stop thieves from stealing his £2,000 trailer.
Ralph Baker, who is retired but lives on Oaklands Farm, East Worldham, suffered extensive bruising and a serious cut to his right eye when two men in a four-wheel drive vehicle, who are still being sought by police for attempted murder, drove over him in the early hours of Easter Monday.
The 73-year-old man escaped, miraculously, without a broken bone, but the incident highlighted the fact that the criminals involved in plant machinery theft can become extremely violent if cornered.
In the 15 months before the theft that nearly cost him his life, Mr Baker had two trailers and two quad-bikes stolen in similar circumstances.
In an attempt to curb the rise in these thefts, police are urging building site managers to ensure premises and machinery are secure overnight, and to consider installing CCTV.
Items of equipment should be marked with Identi-dot or engraved with the owner's postcode. They can also be registered with the National Plant and Equipment Register.
Any serial numbers should also be recorded.