A BUSINESS was this week appealing for the return of their abseiling equipment, which was stolen from their premises last weekend.

HC Limited of Bridge House, Commerce Road, Brentford, only realised they had been burgled when staff turned up for work on Monday morning and they discovered that 25 specially made galvanised steel abseiling posts had been stolen from their yard.

The specifically designed posts, are around half a metre long by 100mm by 200mm. They are worth around £1,750 to HC Ltd, but will be virtually worthless, if sold for scrap metal at around £1 a piece.

John Hynes, Technical Manager at the firm explained what had happened: "Our premises are on the corner of Brentford High Street and Commerce Road. We supply and install safety critical equipment for ongoing maintenance work and we design and then make steel posts and brackets.

"We had had some made for a specific job and we were holding them in our yard at our premises but over the weekend, they vanished."

There was no sign of a break-in to the buildings but only to the outside yard area which is nominally secure. However, on Monday night, the next door garage was also broken into.

The next day, as they were searching their own premises to see what had been taken, they discovered 15 of the missing 25 galvanised posts on the roof of their property.

Mr Hynes added: "The real pain is that these things are not light and weigh around 10 - 15 kgs each. For scrap value they are probably worth £1-2 each but to us they are worth £60 each.

"They are simply not worth the effort of stealing them. It's odd to find them again and I would guess that the rest are scattered around Brentford somewhere, as they're heavy to manoeuvre and they are not going to get much money from them."

Information to the Crimedesk on 020 8939 1540.