Robberies & extortion: Crime increasingly hitting construction sites

Dutch construction sites increasingly have to fight crime, ranging from theft of raw materials to gangs extorting them, the Telegraaf reports based on research by Bauwatch. Over half of construction workers indicated that crime has increased in the past year.

“Tools, copper, steel, water pumps, fuel - you name it, it’s being stolen. Anything someone can use at home is attractive,” Bauwatch director Stefan Witte told the newspaper. “The opportunistic thief will mainly take smaller items. It could be a drill or a wheelbarrow, but we also see larger damage cases where, for example, a shipment of steel is stolen with help from inside.”

Over 60 percent of construction workers have been offered stolen goods at some point. According to Witte, that has to do with the rising costs of raw materials. “A heat pump or expensive boiler immediately generates a lot of money in the criminal underworld. Every construction company faces this.”

Construction sites are also facing extortion. 44 percent of construction companies said they’ve encountered demands for protection money. Half paid out of fear of reprisal or worse. “Extortion always seemed to occur primarily abroad,” Witte said. “I didn’t expect the extortion rate to be so high.” He advocated for more research into this phenomenon on construction sites to identify which branch of organized crime is targeting them.

A few years ago, the direct damage from construction crime was estimated at 250 million euros. But according to Bauwatch, the actual damage is much more. Around 23 percent of projects exceed their budget due to crime. “The damage is much greater if construction is halted because, for example, steel is stolen, preventing progress. If that takes one to four weeks, the delay costs run into millions,” Witte said.