\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJust days before Christmas, the owner of a brand-new home in northwest Cape Coral is facing an unexpected and costly setback before he can even move in.Anthony Boulware says thousands of dollars\u2019 worth of equipment was stolen from his newly built home off Northwest 34th Street \u2014 equipment he says is essential to making the house livable.\u201cI am 61 years old, and it\u2019s paycheck to paycheck or Social Security check, and then something like this happens,\u201d Boulware said.Sometime in recent days, thieves stripped the side of Boulware\u2019s home of its reverse osmosis water purification system. What once included five pumps, filters and large tanks was reduced to an empty storage shelf. Boulware estimates the loss at about $13,000.\u201cIt\u2019s just disheartening,\u201d he said.The reverse osmosis system, which stands six to seven feet tall and holds a large amount of water, is required to provide clean water to the home. Boulware believes the suspects dumped the water before making off with the equipment.\u201cIt was a big tank full of water,\u201d he said.The theft didn\u2019t stop there. Boulware says there are also signs someone tried to break into the home.\u201cThere\u2019s two of them that you\u2019re trying to pry up to see. See, they tried to break in the house,\u201d he explained, pointing to damaged areas near the entry.The theft was discovered about two days ago by the home\u2019s builder, Scott Ryan, after workers noticed there was no running water inside.Ryan, who builds homes across the Gulf Coast, says construction site theft has become increasingly common in northwest Cape Coral.\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of houses being built around here, so it\u2019s a very opportunistic place to steal from,\u201d Ryan said.Cape Coral Police recommend builders and homeowners secure materials, install temporary fencing or locks, and coordinate regular site checks to prevent theft. In the meantime, Boulware says he\u2019s considering installing security cameras, even before moving in.\u201cWe just got to live our lives and hopefully these people can have a heart,\u201d Boulware said. \u201cJust have a heart, man, and just let people live.\u201dRyan says he\u2019d also like to see an increased police presence in the area as new home construction continues to grow.DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tCAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Just days before Christmas, the owner of a brand-new home in northwest Cape Coral is facing an unexpected and costly setback before he can even move in.<\/p>\n
Anthony Boulware says thousands of dollars\u2019 worth of equipment was stolen from his newly built home off Northwest 34th Street \u2014 equipment he says is essential to making the house livable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am 61 years old, and it\u2019s paycheck to paycheck or Social Security check, and then something like this happens,\u201d Boulware said.<\/p>\n
Sometime in recent days, thieves stripped the side of Boulware\u2019s home of its reverse osmosis water purification system. What once included five pumps, filters and large tanks was reduced to an empty storage shelf. Boulware estimates the loss at about $13,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just disheartening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The reverse osmosis system, which stands six to seven feet tall and holds a large amount of water, is required to provide clean water to the home. Boulware believes the suspects dumped the water before making off with the equipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a big tank full of water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The theft didn\u2019t stop there. Boulware says there are also signs someone tried to break into the home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s two of them that you\u2019re trying to pry up to see. See, they tried to break in the house,\u201d he explained, pointing to damaged areas near the entry.<\/p>\n
The theft was discovered about two days ago by the home\u2019s builder, Scott Ryan, after workers noticed there was no running water inside.<\/p>\n
Ryan, who builds homes across the Gulf Coast, says construction site theft has become increasingly common in northwest Cape Coral.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of houses being built around here, so it\u2019s a very opportunistic place to steal from,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n
Cape Coral Police recommend builders and homeowners secure materials, install temporary fencing or locks, and coordinate regular site checks to prevent theft. In the meantime, Boulware says he\u2019s considering installing security cameras, even before moving in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just got to live our lives and hopefully these people can have a heart,\u201d Boulware said. \u201cJust have a heart, man, and just let people live.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan says he\u2019d also like to see an increased police presence in the area as new home construction continues to grow.<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just days before Christmas, the owner of a brand-new home in northwest Cape Coral is facing an unexpected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[47149,2954,47150,9566,209,211,210,166,104,12641,536,2388,5052,213,47151,2425,4002,4103],"class_list":["post-86408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-anthony-boulware","tag-area","tag-brand-new-home","tag-builder","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-day","tag-entertainment","tag-equipment","tag-gulf-coast","tag-homeowner","tag-house","tag-late-news","tag-scott-ryan","tag-theft","tag-thief","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}