No need to rob a bank ... :-)
Scrap-metal bandits increasingly turn copper wire into quick cash
High prices for copper and other metals are fueling a rise in thefts from suburban work sites. Some thieves even risk danger to steal live wires.
Sarah Lemagie, Special To The Star Tribune
Last update: March 14, 2006 – 10:42 AM
startribune.com
For electric utility employees throughout the suburbs, the scene has become all too familiar: Workers lay cable in a trench leading to a new housing development, then leave it overnight.
When they return in the morning, the cable is gone -- ripped out of the ground by thieves who strip it and sell the raw copper to scrap dealers for a fraction of its value.
Copper theft has increased so much in recent months that electric utilities are tightening security to stop criminals from taking wire from suburban storage facilities, construction sites and even live transformers.
Dakota Electric Association, which serves 95,000 members, including many in south-of-the-river communities, has had two break-ins since August, losing nearly $10,000 in copper wire from its main facility in Farmington.
In the past eight months, 114,000-customer Connexus Energy, based in Ramsey, has reported five thefts, most from new housing developments in north-metro towns such as Blaine and Ham Lake.
Xcel Energy, which serves about 1 million customers in the Twin Cities area, has been dealing with a spate of wire thefts for more than a year.
"In the past, you might have heard of something every three or four months, but nothing like this," said Kurt Kumlin, director of loss-control services for the Minnesota Rural Electric Association.
The trade organization represents 44 electric cooperatives, including suburban utilities such as Connexus and Dakota Electric. Kumlin named nearly a dozen co-ops that have reported copper wire thefts since last summer.
"We've seen it go up dramatically in the last eighteen months," said Xcel Energy security director Scott McCoy.
Getting brazen -- and stupid
Criminals have stolen several Xcel utility trucks, including two in the past month. Lt. Dan Votel, who heads the Weapons of Mass Destruction unit at the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, said that he collects information on these cases from local police departments because of the risk that a stolen truck with Xcel's logo could be used to gain access to other company property.
Last week in East Bethel, a would-be wire theft broke into a locked Connexus transformer carrying 7200 volts and tried to cut the copper and aluminum wire, likely receiving a painful shock in the process.
"We didn't find a body, but we don't imagine they'd be in a hurry to do it again anytime soon," said Connexus safety officer Chuck Jensen, who added that scorch marks were found at the scene of the crime.
McCoy said he was amazed at the danger thieves are putting themselves in for $50 of scrap wire. "It's not like they're going out and picking gold up off the ground," he said.
Price of copper fuels the trend
Metal theft is nothing new, but the skyrocketing price of copper has made it more attractive to thieves looking for quick cash. According to data from the International Copper Study Group, the price of copper has tripled in the past three years, to more than $2.20 per pound.
Copper theft also is hard to track, given the vulnerability of construction sites and the fact that unlike typical pawn shop fodder, most scrap metal lacks identifying markings.
Minnesota law requires scrap dealers to collect the name, address, and driver's license number of people selling wire commonly used by communication and electric utilities, but many law enforcement officials are either unaware of the law or lack the resources to enforce it.
Lt. Jim Heimerl is a police officer in north Minneapolis, where he said that metal theft is particularly common because of the area's relatively high concentration of unoccupied buildings and construction sites, as well as the presence of many of the city's major scrap dealers. Heimerl said that scrap dealers put little, if any, effort into tracking suspicious transactions.
"I've never had one of them call and say, 'Joe Blow has been in here 20 days in a row,' " he said.
Cost adds up for businesses
Contractors, plumbers, electricians, and other businesses throughout the metro area are reporting a spike in similar thefts and burglaries.
Thieves have made seven nighttime forays onto gravel pit owner Pete Fischer's Apple Valley property in the past six months to cut cabling from conveyor belts and machinery.
On Feb. 22, Apple Valley police arrested a man in connection with one of the thefts. According to charges, the man dragged cable away from the pit and left it in a pile near a road, then returned with two people the next day to get it.
The arrest was good news for Fischer, but he said that more cable turned up missing the next weekend, "so apparently there's quite a few people doing this kind of stuff."
"It's annoying, it's frustrating, and it's costly," he said. His business has lost close to $15,000 in copper wire, he said.
Medina Electric, which wires housing developments throughout the metro area, has been hit about 10 times in the past six months, said president Roger Georges. The company has resorted to hiring security guards and making daily deliveries of wire to its sites.
"We've just been bringing out what we can put in in a day's work," Georges said.
Jensen, of Connexus, said that his co-op has beefed up security at its main facility, printed fliers for scrap dealers and door hangers for customers in hard-hit areas, and even offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of thieves.
Xcel Energy tightened security when it first realized it had a problem, an effort that McCoy said has reduced the number of burglary attempts at the company's service centers. Now, McCoy said, thieves are more active in the field, where they are more likely to come across energized wire.
"We're not aware of any deaths yet, but God, it's just luck," he said.
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