{"id":612264,"date":"2026-09-26T09:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T09:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612264\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T09:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T09:18:10","slug":"thieves-take-cables-from-grafton-substation-a-year-after-costly-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612264\/","title":{"rendered":"Thieves take cables from Grafton substation a year after costly damage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Baragwanath, director of the K\u0101hui St David\u2019s charitable trust, said thieves had again targeted the Madeira Lane substation about 8am today.<\/p>\n

\"CCTVCCTV footage from the 2025 incident shows a man forcing open the substation door before leaving with copper cables. Photo \/ K\u0101hui St David’s<\/p>\n

\u201cThe earthing cables, value of $300 or so for scrap, have been stolen. Again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Baragwanath said the incident last year caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to nearby apartments and K\u0101hui St David\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\"CablesCables were stolen from a distribution transformer on Madeira Lane, Grafton, last year, leaving parts of the area without power. Photo \/ K\u0101hui St David’s<\/p>\n

A resident at Neo Apartments said he immediately recognised what was happening because he had experienced the previous incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was chatting to some friends online and that\u2019s when I noticed the power was surging,\u201d the resident said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe oven just went absolutely berserk with the beeping and the error codes as the lights were dimming and flickering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt caused a lot of damage to the electrical systems when power was fluctuating quite a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said many residents had been forced to replace electronics on their hot water cylinders after the previous incident.<\/p>\n

Baragwanath accused Vector of failing to adequately secure critical infrastructure despite the earlier theft.<\/p>\n

\u201cVector has failed in its duties to protect this vital infrastructure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a thief just moments to get in, and there is no alarm, no monitoring, no camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"K\u0101huiK\u0101hui St David’s, a charitable trust affected by both incidents, says it is still recovering from electrical damage caused by the previous theft. Photo \/ K\u0101hui St David’s<\/p>\n

Baragwanath said he had contacted Vector after the previous incident, questioning why security measures had not been improved.<\/p>\n

The K\u0101hui St David\u2019s charitable trust was still recovering from the previous incident, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have not been able to fix the damage caused to our electrical systems from last time. Parts have to be made overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur house and stage lighting are still partially out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baragwanath said the trust continued to spend significant time dealing with repairs, insurance claims and security concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsurance does not cover our time managing the massive electrical repairs, paperwork and security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vector said it will investigate and work with police to determine how thieves gained access to the building.<\/p>\n

The company urged the public not to confront anyone they suspected of stealing copper or interfering with electrical equipment, and instead report suspicious activity to police via 111 or 105.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Baragwanath, director of the K\u0101hui St David\u2019s charitable trust, said thieves had again targeted the Madeira Lane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,74,51,138,10166,3290,47608,8604,1853,8608,1259,9935,6147,22510,22048,115093,8999,71,109488,6800,11551,671,111,139,69,10112,2687,28702,42961,199,14168,66960,9438,102,379],"class_list":["post-612264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-about","tag-after","tag-auckland","tag-business","tag-businesses","tag-cable","tag-cables","tag-caused","tag-central","tag-comes","tag-community","tag-costly","tag-crime","tag-damage","tag-disruption","tag-electrical","tag-extensive","tag-from","tag-grafton","tag-homes","tag-hours","tag-incident","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-power","tag-saying","tag-similar","tag-substation","tag-take","tag-theft","tag-thieves","tag-trust","tag-with","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}