It's the cheap deal that could cost you dearly. Police say stolen gas heating systems being sold on the web are often damaged and could cause an explosion.
Police car on the street at night Photo: 123RF
The califont systems are being swiped from construction sites and new builds around Auckland and onsold, sometimes for a third of the price you'd normally pay.
Acting Inspector Jono Chappell reckons if the deal seems to good to be true - it probably is.
In the last three months, Police have noticed an increase in the numbers of burglaries associated to the theft of hot water systems with a majority of them taking place in the South Auckland area around Papakura and Takanini in newly-developed areas.
Chappell said the burglaries tend to occur at night, often targeting unoccupied new build homes.
"They are moving in predominantly at night time or times when construction workers aren't on site, we have had several reports of these califont systems going missing at night from occupied homes but predominantly we're finding it is these new builds where people aren't around," he said.
The stolen califonts are most commonly being sold on Facebook using false profiles but police warn they're 'popping up everywhere'.
"In the last three months, we've had around a dozen reports in the Papakura, Takanini area but talking to colleagues it would appear there are other reports of these burglaries around Tāmaki Makaurau and I'd imagine across the country wherever there are new developments or new builds occurring."
The units are valued at anywhere between $1500-2000 and Police said the thieves are able to monetize their offending very quickly.
Chappell said from what police had seen on social media these units were being sold from $450 to $1000.
He warned these damaged gas units could put buyers at risk of catastrophic gas leaks and fires.
"They're onselling them through the internet and social media selling sites at obviously greatly discounted rates which makes it quite appealing to would be purchasers but there are also a number of risks associated with it as we're finding that the items that we are recovering are damaged when they're removed."
"Obviously these systems are quite specialised pieces of equipment and if it does turn out that they are installed by people that are inexperienced or not able to identify that these items are damaged there is a very real risk of them failing," he said.
Police warned that aside from the safety risk, those who purchase stolen units run the risk of being charged with receiving stolen property should they be found to be stolen.
Police have urged members of the public and construction workers to be vigilant and report any suspicious behaviour using 111 or if they have information relating to the onselling of stolen property to anonymously contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.