Copper theives strike again

This sounds like an easy scam, how easy is it to flip the wire, how much ya get per pound? per ton? That Jack Wyscarver guy sure has his work cut out for him.

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Copper thefts plague city
Culprits steal valuable utility wiring, leaving darkened streets
By Ralph Monta?o - Bee Staff Writer

Published 12:00 am PST Thursday, January 25, 2007
Story appeared in CITY section, Page H1

Friday morning brought more bad news for Jack Wyscarver, Sacramento's
supervisor of traffic signals and street lighting.

The street lights were out in another section of Natomas, and the
culprit wasn't bad weather or a broken conductor. It was wire thieves,
again.

"I just got a call that they hit Benefit Way and East Commerce Way,"
Wyscarver said. "On Thursday, it was Orchard Drive and Barandas Drive.
Just about every night we get a call."

For almost two months, the city has been plagued by thieves who tear up
the city's streetlights to get the copper wire. Neighborhoods are being
left in the dark, sometimes for days as repair are being made.

Linda Tucker, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of
Transportation, said repairs have cost the city $25,000, counting
employee time and materials.

The problem is one that has popped up all across the Sacramento area,
thanks largely to the rising prices being paid by recyclers for the
metals. The Bee reported in August 2006 that authorities in Yolo and El
Dorado counties were seeing an increase in thefts of aluminum and
copper. Aluminum irrigation pipes were being pulled out of the ground
and copper wire was being torn out of the walls at construction sites,
investigators told The Bee.

Last year, hundreds of thousands of people in Placerville lost
telephone service after thieves knocked down more than 1,000 feet of
AT&T cable seeking copper wiring. In Lodi, hundreds of copper vases
disappeared from graves in Cherokee Memorial Park. Almost 800 of the
vases turned up in scrap yards across San Joaquin County.

Officials with the scrap recycling industry said copper prices are at
an all-time high, up to $3 a pound because of several factors,
including increased demand and strikes at mines throughout the world.

City officials say they are contacting scrap metal recyclers to warn
them about accepting the stolen goods.

"If we can cut off where they are cashing it in, then hopefully they
will move on," Wyscarver said. A similar strategy appears to have been
successful in Stockton, Wyscarver added. "Their problem apparently
stopped the day before ours began."

The theory that the thieves are coming from Stockton has no real
evidence, according to Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Matt Young. He
said investigators have yet to find a single eyewitness to 15 different
thefts.

"We are asking the public's help in being our eyes and ears," Young
said. Anyone seen working on utility wires not wearing a city worker
uniform or driving a city truck should raise suspicion.

The thieves are getting access to the wire by lifting the concrete
covers located on sidewalks. Wyscarver said once the thieves get to the
wire, they cut the connection and pull out hundreds of feet of
underground wire. The Orchard Way theft, for example, resulted in the
theft of about 2,000 feet of wire, Wyscarver said. A 10-foot section of
wire weighs about a pound, he estimated.

The thefts have left behind open utility covers and live wires that are
a danger to the public. Anyone finding a street light wiring box left
open is advised not to reach inside.

Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to call the
Sacramento Police Department at (916) 264-5471.
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