HOUSTON – A local dentist is sending out a warning to other business owners after his commercial AC unit was stolen from his practice in the middle of the night.
Adding to the shock that thieves stole a massive AC unit, Dr. Ryan Maneevese with A+ Dental Pediatric Specialists says he’s also baffled at how they were able to get up on the roof that’s about 25 feet high to get to it, and bring it back down.
“We’re just trying to serve the local community and do our best,” Maneevese said.
But it just got a lot harder for him to do the job he loves so much, when he realized a key component of his office was missing
“It affects our business obviously. Our customers are waiting in the lobby with no AC,” he said. “We have two AC units. The one in the back, you can see this one (thermostat) is working, the one in the front is the one that they stole so that one has no power.”
“They disassembled it and took all the parts including the copper wiring,” he added.
Parts that AC technician with One Call Houston, Nicholas Lauder says thieves often target to sell, but he says there are ways to deter HVAC theft from homes and businesses.
“A metal welded cage that sits on top and then it gets bolted down into the concrete slab. One other thing that you could also do to protect this is refrigerant locks, and those are just locks that go on the valves,” Lauder said.
Lauder says having a custom metal cage made could run between $1,000 and $5,000 depending on the size, while refrigerant locks are about $20. Much less than the more than $10,000 Maneevese says he’s having to shell out to replace the unit.
“To have something like this happen is just really tough on all of us,” Maneevese said.
Maneevese says a total of four AC units were stolen from his and other businesses in the same strip mall. HPD says it’s metal theft division is investigating and asking anyone with information to give them a call.
