As copper thieves have grown bolder — with Atlanta police reporting 150 incidents in June alone — so have efforts to thwart the crime wave that has soared along with the price of the metal.
It’s difficult for investigators to pin down where stolen metal originated, so the cases are hard to prosecute. One filched air conditioning coil or spool of copper wire looks like any other.
Without positive identification by the victim, prosecutors can’t win. “They won’t even take it to court,” said Joe Bulat, co-chairman of the Southeast Metal Task Force, a clearinghouse for information on metal thefts.
A Carrollton-based company is using new technology to fight back. Southwire, North America’s largest manufacturer of wire and cable, has given prosecutors evidence they’ve used successfully in court: etching copper wire with a unique code, which for prosecutors is the equivalent of fingerprints on a crime weapon.
Other companies are identifying their copper wiring through the use of paint, though that can be removed by solvent.
Since 2003, the price of copper has gone from around 70 cents to about $4 per pound. Theft of the metal has become a nuisance across metro Atlanta, especially as the recession has left a growing number of big buildings empty.
“It’s a pretty big problem,” said Patrick Laughlin, an Atlanta commercial real estate agent. He routinely sees buildings stripped of copper from conduits or air conditioning units.
A building Laughlin sold in November had suffered $125,000 in wiring theft before the sale, he said. Then, after the sale, the building was hit again. He said the loss the second time was $200,000.
In Lithonia, Laughlin said, someone swiped the copper wiring from a transformer and wrote on it: “Thanks for the copper.” The message was signed: “The A Team.”
When a Georgia Power technician came to fix the transformer, Laughlin asked him about copper theft. The technician responded with a laugh. “He said, ‘This is Tuesday and this is my sixth call this week.’”
Nationwide, utilities have been hardest hit by metal theft, losing about $1 billion a year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Last year, Georgia Power lost about $500,000 to wire theft, spokeswoman Carol Boatright said, and the number of thefts this year — about 70 — is on pace with last year.
Utilities are fighting back. In January, the industry increased its reward from $500 to $3,000 for information leading to copper theft conviction and pressed prosecutors to charge thieves with more serious crimes.
Two years ago utilities got the Georgia General Assembly to pass a law that holds metal thieves accountable for the damage they cause, meaning they may have stolen $100 worth of copper wire, but the cost to reinstall it could be in the tens of thousands. That makes for stiffer penalties.
Sellers of metal must present valid identification, and that record must be kept by recyclers. Yet tracking down copper thieves is still a challenge, said Tom Gillis, an investigator with the Avondale Estates Police Department.
In June someone cut piping from five air conditioning units at a Head Start school in Avondale Estates, disabling the units and spewing refrigerant into the air. “The kids were in there, and when they turned the units on that stuff started coming out,” Gillis said.
He said the school likely would have to replace the air conditioners, which were worth far more than the piping.
He added that it would take a lot of investigative work to catch the thieves.
“The problem is, the metals that they’re taking don’t have serial numbers and they’re not stamped with company names,” Gillis said, “so they’re easily fenceable.”
That’s where identifiable wire like Southwire’s new etched Proof Positive Copper comes in. Southwire stores purchase records for each foot sold and makes the information available online.
Southwire said its laser-etched wire costs more than regular wire but wouldn’t say how much more.
Georgia Power has tried Proof Positive, and Boatright said it’s assisted in some of the 25 theft cases this year that led to arrests.
It’s a sign of the times that the first time Georgia Power installed it at a substation, it was stolen within two weeks. But the wire was identified when the thief showed up at a local metal recycler. He was arrested two weeks later, then prosecuted and convicted.
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