Thief takes what fire didn't destroy

Thief takes what fire didn’t destroy
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published March 26, 2003

They survived the fire but lost everything to a heartless thief.
Tamara Moore, one of four students who rented the Cambridge Street house that was devastated during an early morning fire last Thursday, is livid after all of her worldly possessions were stolen from the burned-out home just 24 hours after the blaze.
"Well, fire is supposed to be cleansing. That's how I'm trying to look at this now," a dejected Moore said Monday morning.
The theft came in spite of the fact that the owner of the burned- out house had hired a security guard to keep watch over the building, Moore said.
Stolen was a laptop computer, a jar full of coins, a portable CD player, Walkman, other electrical equipment and Moore's $1,200 cello, which had a whole lot of sentimental value.
"I have no idea how this happened. The house was completely boarded up with the windows and doors all sealed. The security guard was supposed to be there all night," she said.
Moore said she and the three other tenants were only briefly allowed inside the building on Thursday to take stock of what was salvageable and grab a few of their more important possessions.
"It's awful," Moore said. "The fire marshall allowed us onto the top floor on Thursday just to pick up some of our personal effects and I saw my cello had miraculously made it through the fire unscathed. I set it on my bed to grab it the next day. The only things I took were some papers, my birth certificate and all of my i.d. - only the things I needed immediately.
"But when we went back to the house on Friday, the security guard was still there, but my cello wasn't."
A man who identified himself as 'Dave' from Polo Security said exactly what happened is still under investigation. However, he confirmed that his company contracted out Brian Brown and Associates - another security firm - to give 24-hour coverage to the burned out building.
In his own defence, 'Dave' said that the building was already boarded up and lots of people were wandering around the site when his firm first arrived on the scene.
"If everything was boarded up, how did they (the thieves) get in?" Dave asked. "We're looking into that."
Dave also said that Polo was not informed of the thefts until Monday morning, even though the items were known to be missing around the noon hour on Friday.
"If that's the case, why didn't we get the call until today?" he asked.
In the meantime, the four students are looking for a new place to rent, preferably still in the Heights. To make a donation, the victims have set up an account with VanCity credit union branch number 6, account number 563205.