A Christchurch plumbing business has been burgled three times this week, and its owners say the police response has been “next to nothing.”

The couple, who run the small firm with six staff on their payroll, discovered the latest break-in on Thursday morning when the husband arrived at their commercial premises around 5am to find the office and yard had been broken into overnight.

“We haven’t had a chance to see thoroughly what has been taken yet, or the devastation caused,” the business owner said.

The first two burglaries have already cost the couple an estimated $40,000 in damage to company vehicles, stolen tools and a stolen credit card that was used by the offenders.

The business owners wanted to raise awareness about what they said was a lack of police response, but asked for their company not to be identified because they feared it could be targeted again.

Police have not responded to questions from Chris Lynch Media.

Camera footage showed the first break-in happened around 5:30am on Saturday, when one vehicle was cleared out of thousands of dollars worth of tools and the company credit card was taken.

Frustrated by the lack of action, the couple tracked the card themselves.

“Because the police weren’t acting on what had happened, we went around to the places that the card had been used, and we got the footage ourselves of the perpetrator using our card and sent that into the police. We did their job for them.”

The second burglary came in the early hours of Tuesday, when her husband’s vehicle was broken into, causing $17,000 in damage, with tools cleared out and another van targeted.

Despite multiple 105 reports and a visit to the local police station, officers had still not been to the premises four days after the first offence.

“We were told that they would get someone to forensically examine the vehicles, and we are five days out from that first offence, and they still haven’t done that.”

The couple was instructed not to touch the vehicles so evidence could be preserved, a decision that has now backfired.

“That meant leaving all the drawers and the vehicles open, and then we had that horrific rain, so we have now suffered water damage inside our vehicles while waiting for police to come and forensically examine them.”

Two constables finally attended at 10am on Thursday, but they were not able to forensically examine anything.

“What good is that five days on when the vehicles have been in the rain and probably DNA has been washed away? How do we know we’re talking about the same offenders? This could be three different sets of people for all we know.”

She said a constable at the local station was apologetic and explained officers were stretched.

“Absolutely not her fault. She said they are so busy right now, but isn’t that always what we are told? They are always too busy, they are understaffed, they are under-resourced, and this government was intent on cracking down on crime. I don’t understand. That’s not happening.”

The owner also questioned why Canterbury was closed to new police recruits.

“When the New Zealand police do a post about where they are taking new recruits, Canterbury is not open to take any new police officers. Why is that? We are clearly understaffed. We clearly are needing more officers, but Canterbury is red. They’re not taking any.”

The burglaries have crippled the business, which cannot operate without its vehicles and tools.

“We are struggling. We are just trying to put food on the table, and we’re responsible for the livelihoods of half a dozen staff members. We are unable to do jobs when we don’t have vehicles, when we don’t have tools, when our office has been trashed. We can’t even do quoting.”

“We just feel like we have been completely deserted, that we are on our own, that no one cares. The government is more than happy to take our taxes from our business, but they are unable to do right by us when we are needing it.”

For the young family, the toll has gone well beyond the financial.

“My husband is traumatised. We are beyond devastated. We don’t know how we are able to continue. We have no criminal history, we have no gang affiliation, our criminal records are squeaky clean. We can’t think of anyone that would be wanting to target us personally.”

“We are just at a loss, and nothing is being done about it. It’s like it’s been put on the too hard pile or the not important pile.”