BUISNESSMAN Subhash Mani is warning all business houses to secure their air-conditioning units well following a robbery at his warehouse over the weekend.
Pacific Fasteners (Fiji) Limited was broken into for the second time after less than a week at the weekend.
The intruders dismantled the AC units to rip out the copper wiring inside.
"They first broke in last Tuesday but they were interrupted because one of my employees heard noises and called the police," Mr Mani said.
"They did not take anything, just dismantled the AC unit from the inside.
"After the police left we barred up the areas where the robbers had dismantled the units with roofing iron.
"We did not think they would come back and finish the job."
Early yesterday when he arrived at work, Mr Mani found that the thieves had indeed struck a second time.
"They had broken the AC units and stripped all the copper. They also stripped copper from a power box that wasn't in use."
Mr Mani said the thieves were smart to strike during bad weather with the rain drowning out the noise from their work.
"My concern is that this is a new trend and business owners should be very careful.
"My AC units could be seen from the outside, so the thieves must have been on the lookout for some time before they planned to rob the warehouse."
Mr Mani urged the police and the government to zone in hard on copper buyers so that copper thieves can be stopped.