By Ewen McRae
A construction company is thousands of dollars out of pocket after vandals destroyed five houses under construction in Harkness.
The houses are part of the Willandra estate on Willandra Boulevard, and were almost complete, but on October 13 vandals smashed almost every window and tore holes in walls.
Construction manager Martin Doegan said the vandalism had caused more than $30,000 damage and set back the completion date by almost a month.
“These houses were pretty much done, I was just waiting on some flyscreens and blinds to finish them off,” Mr Doegan said.
“They’ve really gone to town on these five houses. There were 20 broken panes of glass, one house in particular had the plaster in every room destroyed.
“The windows are made from pretty tough glass, but when they break they shatter and the carpets were knee deep in shards of glass. It was a whole day’s work just trying to get the houses to some point where tradesmen could come back into them.
“You get the odd bit of damage on building sites, that’s just part of it unfortunately, but I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Mr Doegan said the vandals are lucky not to have severely injured themselves.
“One bit of damage in particular looks like they’ve had a go with a star picket [pointed metal pole], but it was right next to a light switch,” he said.
“They are so lucky they didn’t barbecue themselves. One of them has clearly cut himself because there was blood all over one of the units.”
It is the second time the site has been struck by vandals recently, with an attempt two weeks ago to steal split-systems from two houses.
Mr Doegan said police had recovered a number of fingerprints from the scene.
He has also increased security at the site to deter any future vandalism.
“We’ve heard from neighbours that they saw some kids on bikes around the houses near the time it would have happened, but we don’t really know much more,” Mr Doegan said.
“The police have some samples and prints, but if they’re kids it’s unlikely they’ll match up.
“We’ve got temporary fences, but they basically just define the boundaries of the site. We’ve now installed cameras on every block, which is another expense, but we’ve got no choice.
“We just want to let people know to keep an eye out, especially on weekends, if you see people at building sites who don’t look like they should be there, call the police.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
