Equipment stolen from businesses

Maybe thieves want to set themselves up in landscape businesses or maybe there’s a market for stolen lawn mowers and other heavy equipment.

Whatever the reason, night-time thieves in Hollis and Amherst have taken about $30,000 worth of hardware and landscaping equipment from various businesses over the past couple months.

In Amherst, burglars struck Nashua Outdoor Power Equipment twice in four days last week, stealing nearly $10,000 in lawnmowers and snow blowers, Police Chief Peter Lyon said.

The business was raided on two separate nights last week, and the suspects cut through a chain link fence.

Surveillance video recorded Saturday night revealed two dark, husky figures at the business during the pair’s second theft there, police said.

Police are also investigating another recent burglary at a landscaping company in an industrial park where chain saws were stolen, Lyon said.

Detectives are determining if there any similarities between the burglary there and the two at Nashua Outdoor Power Equipment, Lyon said.

“We obviously want to solve those burglaries, but also prevent anything more from happening,” Lyon said.

Lyon urged business owners to double check security measures.

In Hollis, more than $25,000 worth of equipment was stolen or damaged at several businesses, including Morin’s Landscaping, RMR Restoration and Dunwell Electric, during nighttime burglaries since September.What stands out, said Hollis police Lt. James Sartell, are the items stolen – commercial construction and landscaping equipment – and the general approach.

The burglaries were “not opportunist,” Sartell said. “It looks like the intent was to get tools. It’s plausible that there is a market for them, or they are in that line of work – those could be reasonable deductions.”

Sartell said police are working with “pretty decent evidence,” and detectives are looking to see if there are similarities to burglaries in surrounding communities.