BLOOMFIELD —
Southern Iowa Electric Cooperative has been victim to at least six copper thefts in the past six months. Each of these thefts cost 10 times more to repair than the thieves get selling the wire.
Not only is this issue costing a considerable amount of money, it has caused outages that took hours to repair.
Davis County Sheriff Dave Davis said the impetus for the theft is money, without thought of the harm others may be suffering.
“What we’ve been seeing is the scrap metal price has been exceedingly high,” he said. “They sell it at scrap metal [yards]. Anything that’s copper; tubing for water or gas, electrical wiring.”
Sometimes, thieves will take a roll of copper or raid a vacant house. Now, though, they’re taking greater chances.
“We’ve had an incident at the county fairgrounds where people climbed the [utility] pole and were cutting then stripping the copper wire,” Davis said. “Somebody’s going to get killed — it’s still live.”
In another instance, thieves appear to have confused fiber optic lines with copper wire. They made no money but did cut off Internet access for businesses and homes in Davis and Appanoose counties.
“It’s senseless,” Davis said.
Southern Iowa Electric Co-op is partnering with other cooperatives in sponsoring a Theft Reward program to encourage rural people to turn in copper thieves.
Tipsters may earn a reward of up to $2,000 if the tip results in the conviction of someone stealing, destroying or otherwise vandalizing rural electric cooperative property.
Information called in will be shared with law enforcement in the appropriate area.
Davis thought that was a good idea.
“Glad to hear it. And obviously, anybody could call us. That’s how we get a lot of things done is through the public’s help.”
Don’t just think “it’s probably nothing,” the sheriff said. Let them determine that.
Southern Iowa Electric Co-op says anyone who sees suspicious activity around substations, offices, trucks and lines owned by the electric cooperatives are encouraged to call.
So what’s suspicious?
“The neighbor’s house that hasn’t had anybody living there for a long time,” said Davis, “and you see a car up there? Don’t confront them, but a license plate is huge [assistance to us], a vehicle description; if you see a person, a description of them.”
If you don’t want to call law enforcement right away, you could probably call the neighbor at their winter home and ask if anyone is supposed to be puttering around their house.
“Call us,” said Davis. “We’ve had a lot of that over the past few years, where a neighbor calls and we catch subjects during a burglary. If it’s nothing, we’ll be OK with that, too. It’s neighbors looking out for neighbors.”
To report theft or vandalism, call the toll-free Theft Reward hotline at 1-855-COPPER9 (855-267-7379).
Local News
September 14, 2012
Copper thefts on the rise
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