Palmerston North Electric Power Station Inc.

The thefts of March 2001

These photos were taken on 7 March 2001, after the discovery of a burglary that will have occurred over the night of 5-6 March. That burglary took out our main engine, No. 216, resulting in very considerable replacement costs for a new group like ours, involved the theft of copper piping, the scrap value of  which was by comparison a pittance. Engine 216 is the one we usually start for visitors, due to the other one being more tricky and time consuming to start. So seemingly losing it only a couple of weeks before two visiting groups arrived, was a major blow to the group.

The power station had also been hit on the night of 2-3 March, and while the engine only received a small amount of damage that time, a considerable amount of other damage was done to fittings around the building. A subsequent attempt was foiled on 16 March.

A reward is offered for information that results the conviction of the culprits.

From this..... (using Engine 215 as an example here)

To this.... (The forlorn and shorn Engine 216 - after the event)

The scene below shows other damage, amongst a significant amount of it, including the cut cable overhead, and an electricity tester on the floor that had been obtained from elsewhere in the building.

The photo below shows the vomit the thieves left for us to clean up beside the alternator of engine 216. It seems at least one of them had pizza or something similar before arriving at the power station.

Last updated: 27/3/2001