09.07.2008

Thieves still active in Moscow

Thieves in Moscow continue to steal heavy machinery including cranes from local construction sites. According to police sources, three KAMAZ based cranes and one cement truck have been stolen in Moscow in the past week.

In the latest incident, two unidentified assailants attacked the Uzbek driver of a KAMAZ crane on Monday on Varshavskoye Shosse in southern Moscow and drove off.

The crane - said to be worth an estimated 2.25 million rubles ($95,000) - was discovered later in the village of Sukhanovo, 10 km southwest of Moscow.

Experts say a dearth of such heavy machinery makes equipment theft a profitable enterprise. "These machines are expensive and in short supply," said Vladimir Pantyushin, head of the economic and strategic research group at Jones Lang LaSalle. "These cranes are being used up to 24 hours a day. They can't travel very far but are easy to sell back for high profits."

Last Friday, three separate cranes were stolen in Moscow.

A 42-year-old Kyrgyz man got lost while driving a crane and was attacked by armed assailants on Novodanilovskaya Naberezhnaya. The attackers climbed up into cab and assaulted the driver, shooting him with a gas pistol when he tried to resist, the source said.

The robbers drove the crane, worth an estimated 5.5 million rubles ($234,000) out to the Leninsky district of the Moscow region, where they abandoned the driver and drove off.

The same day, thieves stole a KAMAZ crane worth about estimated 6 million rubles ($255,000) on Bolotnikovskaya Ulitsa, near the Varshavskaya metro station in southwestern Moscow.