Croydon ARC - the appliance and furniture reuse centre

We all have bad Mondays but today the 15th Feb 2010 got off to the worst start possible. When Kevin our Engineering and Workshop Supervisor arrived at our facility in Croydon to open up and start work he found that the offices had been broken into. Initial investigations showed drawers open and contents thrown over the floor. The petty cash box had been opened - but the few coppers we had in the petty cash box over night had not been taken. As Kevin explored further he found the rear shutters to the building were open. These are always shut and checked last thing at night. So at this point he was already worrying about what else might have been taken. 

He was shocked to find that 2 of the vehicles we rely on to carry out our contracted collection work for local councils and to provide collection services to the people who donate product to us and deliveries to the people who buy product in our shops had been stolen. Once the police were called Kevin had to ring round the management and explain what had happened. He also had to explain to the employees and volunteers when they arrived for work.

Luckily one of our drivers had been using our 3rd van over the weekend so we had one van to start work with. This was sent off with its crew to carry out the work we do for Croydon Council in collecting appliances and all WEEE from the borough. The vehicle was also re routed to complete a WEEE collection job for one of the local schools. Rhianon our Logistics Administrator got on the phone to the people scheduled for collections or deliveries today to apologise and let them know what had happened. The rest of the staff had to wait till the police and scenes of crime people had been and completed their work before they could start work for the day.

We quickly found that we had no land line phones and no broadband or e-mail services so mobile phones were used to contact customers and suppliers to cancel or rearrange meetings and to make arrangements for alternative communication channels.

Once BT arrived it was found that the thieves had lifted the manhole covers across the road from the ARC and had cut the correct wires to shut down all communication into and out of the building affecting 4 businesses including a 24 hr cab company. Clearly the job had been planned well as someone new which wires to cut!

Due to the way in which the wires have been cut it looks like BT will have to dig up the road and run new telephone lines into the building as the cut was so close to the end of the trunking that there is no slack to allow a new joint to be made. We are told this could be a week or more! 

Later in the day we heard from the police that one of the vans at least had been used in a robbery at an ATM in Sutton. The van had been used as a screen to prevent cameras seeing what was going on. This was the one good bit of news during the day as it probably means that the van has not been trashed.