Vandals hit C.B. premises

Press, 3 October 1979, Page 6

Vandals hit C.B. premises

Damage amounting to hundreds of dollars has been done to the properties of two of Christchurch’s biggest suppliers of citizens band radio equipment, and to the radio inspectors’ branch of the Post Office.

Although the inspector’s branch does not know who is responsible, the damage there is thought to be the work of licensed citizens band radio users.

Mr G. Watson, manager of Watson Electronics, Ltd, said that slogans in fluorescent paint, and stickers, had been “plastered” about the property. He estimated damage and time lost in removing the paint and stickers at $6OO. It took five people most

of Sunday to remove stickers and paint from -the front of the building, he said.

Mr G. T. Mayo, manager of Mayo’s Electrical Centre, said that about S2OO loss in damage and lost manhours resulted from the eighth attack on the premises, at the week-end. About 80 stickers had been put on the building.

The activity might have been recorded by a video camera inside the shop, Mr Mayo said. The film was now with the police. Last week-end 10 signs, about 15cm high, were painted in green fluorescent paint on the outside of the Post Office radio inspectors’ building in St Elmo Courts

Most of the stickers are derogatory about the radio inspectors; the fluorescent signs are often of the KZOI call-sign. KZ’s are unlicensed C.B. users who try to sabotage the network.

A KZ operator, who did not want to be named in case he lost his job, said KZs “drew the line” at property damage. He said the vandalsim was the work of C.B. users wanting to implicate the KZs.

The attacks on Mayo’s and Watson’s have been simultaneous. A Tricity House spokesman said the shop was “crossing its fingers.” Mr Mayo said he thought the attacks were a way of drawing the, of

C.B. users to the sometimes “vicious confiscation” of sets by the Post Office. The chief radio inspector (Mr J. E. Brown) said the branch had not confiscated any sets for months.

Stickers had been put up round the offices for months, but the vandalism last week-end had been the worst, he said. A complaint had been laid with the

police. The Addington Post Offcie and doorways to the No. 4 Magistrate’s Court have also been daubed, the court during the hearing of a prosecution brought by the radio inspectors’ branch. A private house also has been