Print
May 25, 2006 9:02 pm US/Central
Thieves Targeting Copper On New Houses
by Brooke Richie
UNIVERSITY PARK (CBS 11 News) ―
Police say a crime of opportunity is sweeping across north Texas. Copper gutters are being swiped from houses under construction.
The price of copper has more than doubled in the past year. For thieves surveying homes under construction that makes the metal especially precious.
It's not your typical burglar's loot, but three days after Pam Brock moved in, she learned that copper thieves had struck.
"We had put the copper gutters up, kind of talked about how they would add to the beauty of the house, not realizing that this would happen," she said.
Four copper gutters, worth a total of about $4,000 were pried from the side of her house. Brock says, "It was something that I feared could happen, but I never dreamed of gutters."
Brock isn't alone, in just the last month there have been four other copper thefts in University Park. "It is different. It's the first of the kind we've seen in University Park," said Officer Lita Snellgrove, University Park Police Department.
When the price of copper skyrocketed, due to supply and demand, thieves everywhere seized the opportunity.
Police detective John Easton says, "This is nationwide. It's not just Dallas, Texas. It's a nationwide epidemic right now."
Easton is with the Dallas Police Department's Metal Theft Unit. He says the number of copper thefts in Dallas grows every month. "It tells me that we can't keep up," he said.
Thieves take their goods to scrap metal yards. Easton says the
only way victims can retrieve their stolen copper is to mark it and make it identifiable.
So far, University Park has only made one arrest related to a copper theft. That was a 16-year-old who was charged with criminal mischief.
(CBS 11 News)
