Copper theft endemic in the US

Not just us in South Africa, after all ...

Early one morning last month, thieves drove up to the back of the church, gutted all nine industrial-size units and sped off. They caused roughly $60,000 in damage to get their hands on about $400 of scrap metal inside — the long coils of copper that serve as the arteries of air-conditioning units.

This summer, copper thieves have been keeping law enforcement officials busy throughout Texas and around the country. In Parker County, about an hour outside Dallas, air-conditioning units at seven churches have been damaged or stolen since late May, including Holy Redeemer Catholic Parish, where someone used a ladder to climb onto the roof and dismantle five of the eight units.

Last week in Lexington, Ky., where the police arrested two men for felony theft, the air-conditioners were not at a church, but at Mary Todd Elementary School.

In recent days and weeks, copper thieves have damaged or stolen heavy-duty air-conditioning units at the nonprofit Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium in Fort Myers, Fla.; the main post office in the Chicago suburb of Riverside, Ill.; Morningside Elementary School in Mobile, Ala.; and the Shackelford Funeral Home in Adamsville, Tenn., forcing the relocation of a cancer victim’s funeral.

The 29-year-old man arrested in the Adamsville case is accused of taking a 97-pound coil and selling it to a scrap metal site, for $1.50 a pound.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/us/12heat.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23