Power poles, church fall prey to theft of copper

The price of copper is up again — and so are thefts of the metal.

The potential payoff has made crooks more brazen, and police say they are tough to catch because they quickly chop their loot into unrecognizable pieces before selling it as scrap.

This week, copper-seeking thieves darkened stretches of Powers Boulevard by breaking into 33 light poles and ripping out the wires inside, the Colorado Springs Police Department said.

The stolen copper wire is estimated to be worth about $19,000. Beginning last Thursday, police said, thieves opened panels at the base of 23 poles on the east side of the road and 10 on the west, then cut out thousands of feet of wire. Three more poles were opened but left with wiring intact, police said.

The rising cost of copper and other metals, along with the ease with which it can be cut up and recycled, has driven a wave of thefts in recent years from construction sites, abandoned buildings and other locations.

In addition to the wiring, thieves pulled three copper downspouts off the walls outside First United Methodist Church, 420 N. Nevada Ave., during the weekend.

An employee at one Colorado Springs scrap yard said they were paying $2.90 per pound for copper Wednesday, nearly triple the price a month ago.

If thieves aren’t caught in the act of stripping wire, prying gutters off old buildings or cutting up their loot, it can be tough to catch them before the material is simply melted, said Sgt. Bill Dehart of the Colorado Springs Police Department. After cutting the metal into pieces, many thieves divide it up and send it to scrap yards across the region and other states, Dehart said.

“How is anyone going to prove where it came from?” Dehart said.

At this point, metal recyclers aren’t like pawnshops, which are required by law to check for proof of ownership and collect signatures from sellers pledging they have told the truth. Sellers who lie to pawnbrokers can be charged with felonies.

The law only requires metal recyclers to check driver’s licenses and record information such as license plate numbers and the quantity and type of metal on purchases of more than 25 pounds. But failing to comply is only a misdemeanor.

That could change July 1 if the governor signs into law a bill on his desk requiring scrap yards to collect more information from sellers, including statements about where they got their metals. Failing to collect the required information when buying more than 25 pounds of metal would become a felony.

Detectives periodically drop in at recyclers to check compliance, Dehart said. Wednesday, an employee and seller at a scrap yard on East Las Vegas Street were cited on suspicion of violating the law requiring proper documentation for a vehicle to be sold as scrap, police reported.

It would be impossible for police to keep a presence at scrap yards to catch people selling bits and pieces of stolen wire and pipe, Dehart said.

Repairing damage caused by copper thefts can be costly. Steve Berry, a Colorado Springs Utilities spokesman, said the bill for fixing the damaged light poles, which were north of the intersection with Union Boulevard, could easily top $100,000.

Buying stolen copper can also be a headache for scrap yards, said Bob Lujan of P&L Scrap Iron Metal. Lujan said he only pays a fraction of what other recyclers will pay for copper because of the metal’s sometimes shady origins. As a result, he sees few sellers.

“A lot of the same guys who will sell it to you will come back and steal it from you at night,” Lujan said.