Municipal police discovered 15 cases of robbery in lifts

During two months, the Chisinau General Police Commissariat discovered 15 cases of theft of electric equipment and parts in lifts, including 11 cases in Botanica district and 4 cases in Centru district. Depending on the number of offences, and on the value of the damage, offenders of this type are either fined or imprisoned. Municipal deputy commissar Iacob Gumenita told a City Hall meeting on Monday, February 5, that mostly, lift robberies are made possible due to the fact that lifts „are not properly consolidated from the technical point of view”. According to Gumenita, the police are currently inspecting all the lifts in Chisinau and the conclusions will be presented to the “Lift-Service” enterprise to close gaps that lead to lifts’ destruction. According to interim chief of “Lift-Service” Ion Stanciu, there are 10-14 lifts robbed every week, and most of the times the transformers and the reel of the brake are stolen, containing 5 kg of cuprum. Stanciu claims that it is very difficult to restore the lifts, since the necessary spare parts are not produced any more, while the repairs are very expensive. According to him, out of the 77 lifts robbed since the beginning of the year, 54 have been reset to functioning with the expense of 66 thousands lei. In February, there has been launched the municipal programme of lift rehabilitation which included the resetting of cabin’s lights, walls reparations, the renewal of command panels. By now, there have been restored 200 lifts. Local authorities consider that the number of repaired lifts could have been larger had it not been for the robberies, since both reparation and rehabilitation of lifts are performed by the same persons. During last year, there have been registered approximately 90 lift robberies, while this year, in just half a month, there have already been registered approximately 80 similar offences. The burglars steal first of all motors, transformers and the cable. Previously, municipal authorities said the thefts in elevators set reasons for creating associations of dwellers part of 23 municipal enterprises. There are 2320 lifts functioning in Chisinau, 1160 of which are for the use dwellers.