Generators have been stolen from Vodafone’s mobile sites - cutting phone coverage in storm-affected areas, chief executive Jason Paris says.
“Unfortunately, generators are being stolen from mobile sites, taking connectivity down after we have it up and running,” Paris wrote in a tweet this evening.
Paris said that police are now patrolling sites and that most of the generators are GPS tracked.
This adds to an already difficult time country-wide as Kiwis continue with Cyclone Gabrielle clean-up.
“We know who the perpetrators are... Times are tough, but don’t be a d***,” he said.
Vodafone would not disclose the exact number of generators stolen, nor in what regions.
A spokesperson from mobile provider Spark told the Herald that it had one generator stolen from a mobile site in Napier, but it has now been recovered by police.
As of 12.30pm today, Vodafone reported that they had 48 cell sites that remained down across the country, due to power or fibre outages.
The peak of cell site outages were recorded on Tuesday, February 14, when there were 185 reported, Vodafone said.
Vodafone NZ chief executive Jason Paris. Photo / Michael Craig
Napier residents also expressed growing fears of lawlessness yesterday amid the clean-up following the devastating cyclone.
Some stressed residents have been seen squabbling and fighting in petrol and food queues, while others are taking to social media to warn of thieves preying on victims of the flooding.
Napier resident Brayde Tuahine said the stress of so many people still being without power and struggling to access essential supplies was “starting to get to everyone”.
She was at BP Carlyle in the city yesterday when an ugly shouting match erupted in the petrol queue.
Two men could be seen shouting and shoving each other during the altercation.
“Move your “f*****g car,” one yelled.
While someone from the supermarket shouted over to them to “give it a rest”.
Tuahine said a couple of other fights broke out yesterday as well.
“Everyone should just have patience for everyone. Everyone needs to remember that everyone’s going through it at the moment, not just them.”
Police intervened after a shouting match broke out at a the BP Carlyle in Napier.
Another Facebook user yesterday posted on a community page that “thieves are thriving” in the aftermath of the storm.
He claimed thieves had stolen hand tools, chainsaws, concrete cutting equipment and other power tools from four separate road and utility work utes on Tuesday night.
The workers were all in the area to try and restore vital road and other networks to the community and had been staying in emergency accommodation away from their families, the man said.
He said his teams were already struggling to keep up with the vast amounts of work that needed doing.
“I wish you’d taken my ute instead and left the damn chainsaw and tools behind,” he said in his post.
“I only hope you’re doing some good with the gear and helping many of the distraught people around our city. I don’t have the energy to express my anger after the massive hours our crews are putting in out there.”
Another Facebook user asked whether anyone wanted to join him in doing nighttime patrols of the community to try and stop the burglaries.
He posted a photo of a truck with a digger on the back of it that had been broken into.
“No doubt this driver/operator has been helping and scumbags do this,” he wrote.
Asked earlier today about reports of people’s homes in Hawke’s Bay being burgled or scoped out for burglaries, Police Deputy Commissioner Glenn Dunbier said it was “business as usual” for officers throughout these types of events.
“We would take a hard line on anyone taking advantage of a state of emergency and we will arrest and prosecute anyone we find doing that,” he said.
“At the same time, our communities are largely pulling together through all this and I would say that would overwhelmingly be in the minority that was occurring.”
