“They may not have known what the purpose was of the gear but to be fair the whole site has signage about the asbestos and to keep out, so there is adequate warning about what is happening on site.
“To put things in context, when we leave the site the vacuum cleaners are wrapped in plastic and sent to Auckland to be cleaned.
“If someone was to open the vacuum cleaner and dump the contents, they’d be covered in asbestos or worse still, may sell or give it to some unsuspecting person and put them at risk.”
According to Barfoote, this was not the first time his crew had been hit by thieves on an asbestos site.
In an earlier incident at a site on Rewarewa Rd, thieves had broken into their decontamination unit, smashing up doors and destroying their showers.
Barfoote said this most recent theft had put his business out thousands of dollars right before Christmas and had left one of his workers without any tools.
It also meant they were unsure if the thieves had spread more asbestos around the site as a result of removing their gear.
“It’s potentially made the site more dangerous because we don’t know what they’ve done while they were there,” Barfoote said.
“We also don’t know if or when we’ll get this covered by insurance, so we just have to wait and see.
“It’s really not just the value of the stolen equipment I’m worried about though, it’s the fact that people might have asbestos through their house.
“So the point I’m trying to make is, don’t muck around with this asbestos stuff, you’re putting your health at risk and risking the health of others.”
Barfoote confirmed a police report had been filed.
