Are they taking the pee? Crooks are stealing portable toilets from unmanned building sites during lockdown spree

Police are hunting a gang of crooks following a spate of bizarre portable toilet thefts during lockdown.

Inspector Rob Offord said the thefts have been carried out across Northamptonshire at random, with charities and building sites among those targeted.

He told a council meeting the force had nothing to go on - apart from the suspects had been mainly striking at night in unattended places without any CCTV.

Officers have now advised portable toilet owners, or those hiring the toilets, to secretly mark them so they can be identified if stolen and later found.

Inspector Rob Offord said the thefts have been carried out across Northamptonshire at random, with charities and building sites among those targeted. Pictured: Stock image

Inspector Offord told a Kettering Town Forum meeting: 'It was found in Wellingborough back in August and months proceeding that there was a spate.

'All I can ask is the owners or people hiring them ensure there is some unique identification on them.

'First of all that is overtly on display but can also be covertly put in - whether that is smart water.

'I'm not saying it is proper to microchip them, but they do it with caravans.

'The main thing is, if we seize a portable loo that is great, but if we can't identify its owner, just saying it's blue with a white top - you won't be able to reconcile that back with the original owner, you will have to give it back to the suspect.

Officers have now advised portable toilet owners, or those hiring the toilets, to secretly mark them so they can be identified if stolen and later found. Pictured: Stock image

'Having some kind of identification that is covertly inside it would be really helpful.'

Day service provider Teamwork Trust, based in Kettering, was one charity which had a £500 portable toilet stolen.

Tory councillor Lesley Thurland, of Kettering Borough Council, added: 'This isn't a joke, but it seems there has been a spate of portable toilet thefts.

'I can't believe your normal burglar on the off chance is going round and taking a loo.

'But one of those involved was the Teamwork Trust who can ill afford to get things stolen especially as they need it because of Covid.'

Comments

Two eBay employees plead guilty to terrorizing blogger couple in a bizarre harassment scheme that included delivering live spiders, funeral wreaths and a bloody pig mask to their home after they criticized the company

Prosecutors revealed an indictment against six former eBay employees, among them high-level executives, for threatening David and Ina Steiner , the founders of ECommerceBytes.com Two former eBay employees have pleaded guilty to participating in a plot to terrorize a publisher and editor of an online newsletter that criticized the company by sending live spiders and other disturbing deliveries to their home. Stephanie Popp, 32, former senior manager of global intelligence, and Veronica Zea, 26, a contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and to tamper with witnesses on Thursday. The pair are among six former eBay employees charged in a bizarre harassment campaign targeting Massachusetts couple David and Ina Steiner, the founders of ECommerceBytes.com. Popp and Zea, both from San Jose, California, are scheduled to be sentenced in February. Three others are expected to plead guilty later this month. Investigators said the co

EXCLUSIVE: From a $US13million mansion to a caravan: How the Australian wife of Il Divo singer has been 'forced' to live in a dodgy trailer park after a wildfire burned down their house during a bitter divorce battle

'Forced' into a 'mobile home park': Renee Izambard (nee Murphy) with her estranged husband, the suave Il Divo opera singer Sebastien Izambard An Il Divo opera singer's estranged Australian wife claims she was 'forced' to live in a caravan park after their $US12.95million Malibu mansion burned down in a wildfire days just after she filed for divorce. Details of one-time Sydney Sony Music executive Renee Izambard's new life after her messy split with French tenor Sebastien Izambard were laid bare in a lawsuit filed with a Californian court this week. Ms Izambard (nee Murphy) is suing insurer State Farm, her estranged husband, an insurance agent and up to 20 others, over an allegedly 'inadequate' policy which covered the couple's destroyed former Malibu home. Their five bedroom residence - described as a 'no expense spared ... oasis' - and its two guest houses went up in flames on November 8, 2018 during California's devastating Wo

Heartbroken mother warns other parents after her two-year-old daughter swallows remote control battery and dies

A heartbroken mother has issued a warning to other parents after her two-year-old daughter died from swallowing a remote control battery. Harper-Lee Fanthorpe, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, passed away on May 23, hours after swallowing the battery when the acid inside burnt through her food pipe. Mother Stacey Nicklin said she did not realise her daughter had swallowed the battery until she found the remote control with a missing button battery in her bedroom. Harper-Lee Fanthorpe, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, passed away on May 23, hours after swallowing the battery when the acid inside burnt through her food pip Mother Stacey Nicklin said she did not realise her daughter had swallowed the battery until she found the remote control with a missing button battery in her bedroom The two-year-old was being watched over by her older sister, Jamie-Leigh Nicklin-Hulme She recalled her daughter's final words to her were: 'Mummy, I need you'. The two-year-old was b

Newsif Blog

Search This Blog