By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Days after two workers plunged to their deaths at an Upper West Side construction site, thieves stole thousands of dollars in tools and an accident investigation kit from the site, a police report shows.
The Department of Buildings shut down the 150 West 83rd Street site, where Redeemer Presbyterian Church is building a worship and community center, hours after the Feb. 8 accident that took the ironworkers' lives.
The DOB discovered several safety violations, including the absence of certain equipment that could have prevented the deaths. Brett McEnroe, 49, of Dover Plains, N.Y., and Roy Powell, 51, of New Paltz, N.Y, were installing metal beams inside an elevator shaft when they fell 65 feet.
Sometime between Feb. 11 and Feb. 14, thieves broke the locks on three trailers at the site and made off with $1,250 in property, including DeWalt and Makita drills, a $150 pair of snow boots, a laptop computer and an "accident investigation kit," according to a police report.
The police report didn't list the contents of the accident investigation kit or say whether it was related to the city's investigation into safety violations at the site.
The stolen property belonged to Peepels Mechanical Corporation of Queens, Forest Electric and F. J. Sciame Construction Company, the site's general contractor.
Workers discovered the burglary on the morning of Feb. 14, according to a police report. Investigators believe the thieves may have entered the site through the back, where police found footprints in the snow, police said.
Detectives were investigating whether the break-in was an inside job, police said.
The Department of Buildings was still investigating the safety violations it discovered at the site in the hours following the accident, a DOB spokeswoman said.
The DOB issued 10 serious safety violations against F. J. Sciame Construction, including one for a lack of netting that could have stopped the workers' plunge, a lack of "toe boards" to prevent falls and slipping, a lack of guard rails, and a failure to cover holes in the floor that were large enough for people or equipment to slip through, DOB records show.
A hearing is scheduled for March 30 before the city's Environmental Control Board. F. J. Sciame Construction faces fines if the company is found guilty of the safety violations.
