Six km of wires stolen from surveillance cameras on HCMC bridges

The thieves seemed to prefer electric wires, bare copper wires and HDPE plastic mesh wires, according to documents sent by the Road Traffic Infrastructure Management Center to entities like the Thu Duc City and Binh Chanh and Can Gio district administrations.

The cameras are installed beneath bridges to monitor waterway traffic.

Around 3,700 m of bare copper wire, 1,600 m worth of DSTS cables and 880 m of Duplex CV cables have been lost.

The cables and wires are stuck using glue to prevent theft, but it has not deterred thieves.

With the cameras affected by the thefts, regulation of boat traffic and investigating their collisions with other vessels and bridge piers have been affected.

Many of the bridges where the thefts occurred are at vital waterway routes, and have heavy traffic passing under them every day.

The management center has called on localities and agencies to raise awareness about the issue, and the police and militia to patrol the areas to prevent the thefts.

The theft of public assets is a frequent occurrence in HCMC.

In August 2022 water meters worth around VND100 million were stolen in downtown areas. Last year cables were stolen from lampposts on the HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway.