Copper Theft A Huge Concern In Today’s Troubled Residential Sector

Copper Theft A Huge Concern In Today’s Troubled Residential Sector

 

By Nick Markowitz, Jr.

The Security Mission

 

A customer of mine recently bought an old building which at one time was a home. It had been converted into a distributing business along Pennsylvania 51 in the south hills.

They were storing some junk in the building till they get ready to start an expansion

project when they came to work one morning to find the front door window broken. The thieves, however, were unable to get in by this method so they broke a back window to gain access.

 

The owner called police and reported the break in but found that nothing had been missing, or so they thought so until one of the owners tried to use a sink. It was then that they discovered there was no water. In fact, there was no water anywhere in the building. It was then that he went downstairs to the basement to investigate. He found that the water had been turned off. Immediately upon turning the valve back on he discovered why the thieves really broke in. Almost every piece of copper piping in the basement had been removed!

 

Luckily the thieves turned off the water and gas lines before they started ripping out all the copper pipe. The approximate worth of what they stole is valued at $500.00, but that does not include the cost of having a plumber put it all back in. In this case the owner was lucky that the thieves thought enough to turn the main water valve off. In other cases this is not always the way it has gone as water has been left to ruin the victim’s home, such as in Stowe Township where copper thieves broke a gas line causing the home to eventually explode long after they were gone.

 

In the case of my customer, the piping was stolen off the hot water heater and this could have lead to a fire or an explosion if the hot water tank was left operating. Here the hot water tank could have overheated after all the water boiled out.

 

In conclusion, copper thieves put all of us at risk with such stunts. They have cost utility companies thousands of dollars in damage to transmission facilities. Hopefully the authorities will be able to identify the culprits as the thieves left their fingerprints behind.

 

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