MIRI: The ready market is a factor that encourages thieves to steal drain and manhole covers belonging to the Miri City Council.

In the first five months of this year the council has suffered losses amounting to RM60,000 through theft of these materials, Mayor Datuk Wee Han Wen said when met in his office here yesterday.

He said that 297 drain and manhole covers of various shapes and sizes were stolen during the period.

“The city council spends at least RM200 for a piece depending on the size and design.

“Imagine losing 63 drain covers, 45 (round) manhole covers, and 189 (square) drain and manhole covers in a space of five months. But when they are sold to scrap metal dealers they are only bought for 50 or 60 sen per kg.

“The return is so small that it is not worth the trouble to steal in the first place. The bigger disappointment is of course when you are caught,” Wee said when asked to comment on the rampant theft of anything made of metal here, adding that their action contributed to a waste of the taxpayers’ money.

Wee went on to say that such thieves were seemingly getting bolder by the day.

They would even go to the city centre looking for metal to steal whereas in the past their favourite haunts were the outskirts and secluded areas.

On steps being taken by the city council to stop the ‘madness’, Wee said that drain and manhole covers would be, from now on, embedded in the concrete or welded to the frame fixed in the concrete.

“Thieves may be able to find other ways to get them out but it would take them longer time, and in the process they may be caught.”

He said a better solution to the problem was for the scrap metal yard owners not to buy these items from whoever brought the items to them.

“Everybody knows that metal manhole covers, for example, are not a commodity for sale. A person who brings them to the yard for sale must surely have stolen them from somewhere.”

Wee also called on the police to make regular patrol of the neighbourhoods here, as their presence would deter would-be thieves.

Members of the public on the other hand are urged to report to the relevant authorities if they saw of knew of someone stealing the items.