Given the high cost of copper these days, it’s not surprising that if thieves are willing to go into an electricity substation, they’ll definitely take some from empty or vacant homes.
That’s the experience relayed to me recently by reader Janice, who saw first hand the voracity of thieves to purloin the stuff. Here’s what she told me:
“I saw on your blog that you were seeking stories of people that had been victims of this crime. We are in the process of buying a home in the South Colby area that is currently unoccupied. Yesterday, we went to the home and our daughter found the door unlocked. Upon closer inspection we saw that the door had been pried open. After locating the owner of the home, we went in and didn’t see anything damaged or missing. As we were leaving the house, the current owner discovered the exposed copper pipe in the garage and been cut on one end (inside the drywall) and broken off at the other.
The pipe taken was about 15 feet long. The home does have a lot of copper piping, luckily most of it was not exposed as it is under the house in a small crawl space.
From the media reports, sounds like most of these thefts are involving wiring, I’m wondering if our experience is a common one. The owner did tell us a few weeks prior he approached someone walking around the outside of the home late in the evening. When he explained the house was almost sold, the stranger quickly left the property. We now wonder if this could have been the thief.”
Anyone else have stories to share? Remember, if you believe you’re seeing this kind of theft or have been a victim of it, report it to your local police department.
