Tools stolen

Three construction sites in Aspen were robbed Thursday night or early Friday morning, according to the Aspen Police Department.The houses being constructed were all in the Five Trees subdivision on or near Moore Drive, said Eric Ross of the police department. At each site, reinforced steel “Joboxes,” where workers lock up their valuable tools, were forcefully broken into.Ross said compressors, chop saws and various power tools were taken at each site. One contractor estimated at least $7,000 worth of tools was taken from his site.The police department does have some leads in the case, but Ross would not elaborate.Construction workers told police they left their sites at 6 p.m. Thursday and reported the crimes when they returned to work at 6:45 a.m. Friday. Police gathered some fingerprints at the site but do not yet know which prints may belong to the perpetrators or which belong to the owners of the tools.”They could have made a lot of noise getting into those Joboxes, but we haven’t found anyone who heard anything,” Ross said. The perpetrators would also have needed a large vehicle to carry away all of the heavy equipment.”I think the message is that if you have valuable stuff, and you can take it with you for the evening, you should,” Ross said. “The construction workers did everything they could to lock up their tools – they weren’t negligent.”Anyone with more information about the thefts can call Eric Ross at the police department at 920-5400.Naomi Havlen’s e-mail address is nhavlen@aspentimes.com