Not every theft involves a stolen car through a shopfront. Some are much quieter: a vehicle backed up to a storage door, a padlock cut, and a few minutes of loading. A police appeal this week described one of those in Melbourne's north-west.
What was reported
According to Victoria Police and Yahoo News, at about 5.10am on Wednesday 28 October at least three offenders used bolt cutters to get into a locked cool room on Wirraway Road, Essendon Fields. The cool room belongs to Basq restaurant.
They loaded assorted meat worth about $20,000 into a silver Toyota LandCruiser, which police believe then headed north from a roundabout near the restaurant towards the Melrose Drive exit. Detective Sergeant Chris Hussey said police were asking the public to keep an eye out for the LandCruiser seen in the footage. No arrests had been reported.
Small target, common pattern
Twenty thousand dollars of meat might not sound like a major crime. For a restaurant, though, it's a large amount of stock gone before service, plus the cost of replacing locks and doors and the disruption of rebuilding the order.
The method is the same one used on warehouses, depots and yards all over Melbourne:
- A vehicle that can carry the load. Meat, like copper, alcohol or tools, is heavy. A large 4WD or ute is needed to move a meaningful amount.
- Access close to the door. The faster the loading, the shorter the time on camera. A vehicle parked right at the door is ideal for an offender.
- A weak point on the door. In this case, according to the reports, bolt cutters were enough to get in.
- The quiet hours. Just after 5am, before staff arrive and while the area is empty.
Back-of-house is often the soft side
Hospitality venues, food businesses and light industrial sites often put real effort into their front of house: shopfront glass, front doors, alarms. Storage is often round the back or in a separate unit, secured with a padlock and visited a few times a day by staff.
Those areas also tend to be designed for easy vehicle access, because that's how deliveries arrive. The same open apron that lets a supplier's van reverse up to the cool room at 7am lets anyone else do it at 5am.
What makes a storage door harder to raid
We haven't seen the Essendon Fields site and aren't commenting on its security. For any business with a cool room, storeroom or storage unit, a few measures work together:
- Better locks. Closed-shackle or shrouded padlocks and proper hasps resist bolt cutters far better than a standard padlock. This is often the cheapest improvement available.
- Keep vehicles back from the door. A pair of removable bollards a few metres out from a storage door means a vehicle can't park right against it. Stock has to be carried further, which takes longer and is more visible. Suppliers get the bollards lifted out when they arrive.
- Cameras on the approach. Police here were able to describe the vehicle and its direction of travel, which is what an appeal depends on. Cameras covering the vehicle approach and number plate are worth more than one pointed at the door.
- Alarms on storage, not just the main building. A door contact on a cool room or storeroom can alert someone before loading is finished.
Thinking like the delivery driver
A useful exercise for any manager is to stand where a delivery driver parks and ask how long it would take to empty the storage into that vehicle. If the answer is a few minutes, that's also how long it takes a thief.
Making the vehicle park further away, making the lock take longer to defeat, and making the approach visible on camera each add a little time. Together they turn a quick job into a slow one, and that's usually enough to change the outcome.