Copper Theft Continues Despite Moderate Price Drops

Valuable commodity still targeted by thieves

By Scott Berinato

February 06, 2007 — CSO —

Despite copper’s drop in price from a high of nearly $4 per pound to about $2.50 per pound on the London Metal Exchange, theft of the commodity metal continues unabated.

Partly, that’s because even at $2.50 per pound, copper remains at historically high prices, as noted by economist Patricia Mohr in CSO’s cover story "Red Gold Rush." It could also be partly the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy: Once copper theft rose so sharply in 2006 and was widely reported, more people decided to try it. In other words, the high prices initially drove the theft, but now awareness does.

At any rate, a small sample of recent headlines demonstrates that copper thefts continue across the globe. All of these places have been hit since December, and many occurred in the span of one week in late January: Minneapolis; Cape Argus, South Africa to Charlotte; New Orleans; Honolulu; California; Guam; Kissimmee, Fla.; Maine; Bluffton, Ind.; Darwen, England; Las Vegas; Glocester, R.I.; Alabama; Pensacola, Fla.; Palm Springs, Calif.; and Namibia.

Authorities in many of the cases continue to make the link between drugs and metal theft as a means of getting cash for drugs, evidenced by the risky behavior many are still taking to get the metal, such as the thieves who scaled a 200-foot communications tower to procure some metal, and continued break-ins at electrical substations. Collateral damage from thefts remains a problem as well. In the 200-foot tower case, the FAA had to be notified because the tower’s marker lights went out as a result of the theft, putting small aircraft in danger. In Minneapolis, one story reported, there have been at least four explosions in vacant houses and six gas leaks due to copper theft.

-Scott Berinato

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