Copper thief!
We had a copper thief over the weekend at my company. The thief took apart one of our outside AC units and stole the copper.....I would guess for scrap value.
It surprises me that they chose our building due to our property being fenced. I guess we will consider adding some additional security.
I would assume that if our local scrap converters (DH Griffin) works with the police that this would be an easy catch.
Other thoughts?
It surprises me that they chose our building due to our property being fenced. I guess we will consider adding some additional security.
I would assume that if our local scrap converters (DH Griffin) works with the police that this would be an easy catch.
Other thoughts?
posted by meblogin at 8:53 AM
4 Comments:
I'm thinking that if GPD weren't so grossly understaffed this would have never happened. After all, taking apart a commercial sized air conditioner is not a 5 minute job.
Most cooper thieves will go to the smaller yards, as did a few idiots in Randleman a few years back when they stole transmission line from WXLV-TV. The copper was clearly marked and they made no effort to hide the markings.
The problem is that the thieves have generally sold the copper before the police report is sent to the scrap yards or even before the crime is reported.
To make matters worse is when legit recyclers add stolen stuff to their loads - those folks are hard to catch.
Plenty of scrap dealers are being flooded with stolen copper. I know several realtors in Reidsville who are being raped by crack heads stealing copper. Just another residual.
We met with the police today and they finger printed and expressed interest. Later we learned that over 10 of our neighboring businesses had similar thefts from this past weekend and that there were a few more a weekend earlier.
I had my folks call DH Griffin back and ask who their competition might be locally. They told us about a battery place...we called them and learned that someone sold 10 coils this morning....we asked for identity of who they bought from and they provided. We shared this with police and they are going over to interview to determine all the companies in the chain.
One of the neighbors had a camera that captured the thieves on video. Hopefully between the video, name and phone number the police can stop this before it gets worse.
fingers crossed..... as we have more units...
OH...we are adding locks to keep the units in the on position. The thieves turned off the power and removed the fuses. Perhaps with 480 volt power they will think twice and move on.
Please keep the ideas coming. As Billy pointed out the GPD is understaffed and needs our help.
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