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Anchorage builders talk with anger and frustration about a construction site crime wave that has flared up again in recent weeks -- and with amazement at the sheer industriousness of thieves who pillage unfinished houses.

The thieves take toilets, kitchen cabinets, countertops, pipes, bathtubs. They cut carpet out of living rooms. They unhook dishwashers and leave the pipes to flood new floors.

"Anything goes," said Anchorage police Detective Helen Rhea. "I've never seen it to this magnitude. Normally in the past, they go in and take generators, nail guns, construction tools . ... Now I'm seeing it elevate up to the next level."

Early this month, a thief or thieves with an open flatbed truck stole more than $13,000 worth of materials including compressors, heating pipes and electric cords from a Thorpe and Associates home-building site. Like many other thieves, they struck in broad daylight.

"These are construction professionals. There is no doubt. To selectively pick out these things, we are talking about working guys with tools. Four kids with their hats on backwards wouldn't get away with it. You can't take this stuff to the pawn shop," said owner Russ Thorpe.

This is a perennial problem of construction sites everywhere, said Chuck Spinelli, owner of one of the area's largest home-building companies, Spinell Homes. He remembers averages of around four or five thefts of the more than 200 homes he builds in a year. Now, he's getting hit with 10 a month, he said.

Spinelli and other builders said the spree has been particularly noticeable in Eagle River because of the volume of building activity there and because of the remoteness of many of the sites.

Rhea confirmed the rash. She said that in the first 10 days of October, half of the reported burglaries in Eagle River and Chugiak were at new construction sites.

Rhea says not all the construction thefts are reported to police. Builders say they aren't reporting because their insurance rates could go up, claims are difficult to file and high deductibles deter them.

Alex Snegirev, superintendent of another of Anchorage's largest home-building companies, Colony Builders, said the costs of the thefts go beyond the value of the materials. A missing construction item one day means expedited shipping and paying for overtime the next. "If they steal $25 or $50 of materials, it costs me $150 to replace it," he said. "It eats me up big time."

Rhea said police are honing in on two suspects with multiple counts of thievery. They were caught about two weeks ago with a truck full of siding material in Eagle River and could be involved in other thefts. Rhea declined to say more because of the pending charges.

Alaska State Troopers last week arrested Jeremy Hildebrand, 22, of Wasilla, on charges he took part in the theft of a new dishwasher and space saver microwave from a Spinell Homes site, troopers said. Troopers said Hildebrand was arrested after DNA connected him to the scene. Spinelli said Hildebrand's blood was left at the scene, perhaps on some pipes or wires he disconnected.

Some critics say law enforcement is not doing enough to combat the problem. Paul Michelsohn, owner of Michelsohn and Daughter Construction, wants to see more police patrolling neighborhoods. Snegirev would like to see them do the same.

Others say the police can only do so much. "This kind of thievery is unreal," Spinelli said. "It's just the unwritten code that you don't go stealing off a job site ...It's one of those things with people in this trade ... These people have blown that code of ethics to heck."

Rhea said that police drive through sites and patrol the new construction areas. She says the culprits "are meshing in. They are looking like construction people, like they should fit in to that environment."

Meanwhile, builders are doing what they can -- wrapping heavy chains around equipment, tying stuff down, not leaving sites until everything is locked up, putting their name on everything they can, and some are even installing expensive video cameras.

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