Weak economy drives theft of copper wiring

They're stealing copper wiring from streetlights, stripping it from electrical substations, and burrowing into the ground for it as if mining precious metal.

Always a problem, metal scavengers have become more brazen in the economic downturn, authorities said, sometimes endangering public safety across Philadelphia and South Jersey.

They're removing brass fittings from water hydrants and wiring from cellular towers, telephone networks, and railroad lines such as PATCO.

The crime has become so prevalent that the FBI says it affects national security by disrupting "the flow of electricity, telecommunications, transportation, water supply, heating, and security and emergency services."

Utility companies such as Peco and PSE&G mark their wiring so it can be identified when stolen. They're working closely with area police departments, using the Internet to track thefts, and alerting area scrap yards to be on the lookout for stolen items.

Two employees of a Camden scrap yard were charged last week with receiving stolen property after they were seen paying cash for copper wire that was clearly labeled as PSE&G property.

"This crime is not only a matter of theft," Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk said. "It can disrupt the proper functioning of a city and can end up costing significant taxpayer money for repairs."

During the same week, a thief who stole brass fittings from several hydrants in Camden's Gateway area hindered firefighters from battling a 12-alarm blaze that left 50 people homeless.

Also recently, thieves were nabbed by police in Camden County after cutting through a PSE&G substation fence to steal copper wiring from the yard, utility officials said.

Investigators have even seen scavengers dig three feet underground to get to wiring, authorities said.

"There is a lot of theft going on; it's a nationwide epidemic," said Thomas Di Nunzio, a major crimes unit investigator in the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. "It's not just what they're stealing and how they're stealing it; it's where they're stealing it."

Earlier this year, police reported that thieves stole copper wiring from a cellphone tower in Evesham Township. And last month, three people were arrested after allegedly stripping copper from an air-conditioning unit at a Kmart store in Burlington.

Even the dead can't rest in peace.

Three women were charged last week with theft and fencing stolen property after allegedly removing 380 metal markers and flower urns from Cinnaminson's Lakeview Cemetery.

Similar pilferage has plagued cemeteries in Cherry Hill, Pennsauken, Bellmawr, Edgewater Park, and Riverside. More than 150 metal flag holders were reported missing last month from New Camden Cemetery in Camden.

One of the most annoying and common larcenies, though, involves the copper scavenging from lamp posts, leaving the lights inoperable, Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson said.

"Street lighting is a proven deterrence to criminal activity," he said. "The actions of these thieves are diminishing the quality of life of our residents, and we encourage the community to report to police immediately any tampering of light poles or access panels."

Di Nunzio said the thieves "break into the bottom of the streetlights and pull out the wire."

"They also cut holes in fences at [utility company] storage facilities and take the heavy-gauge wire from spools," said the investigator, who has alerted scrap yards with e-mails, letters, and photos. "The thefts are rampant.

"After a while, they have enough for a couple hundred bucks."

The copper, which ranges in diameter from a thin wire to the width of a garden hose, can be sold to area scrap yards for $3.50 a pound, a lucrative payoff in a tough economy.

"Since the price of copper has risen a great deal, utilities, telecommunications companies, and construction sites around the country are experiencing an increase in copper theft," said Francis McCormick, PSE&G's manager of asset protection and preparedness.

PATCO also has been targeted. "From time to time, there are problems with copper wire thefts," said John Matheussen, chief executive officer of the Delaware River Port Authority and president of PATCO. "Those who steal the copper wire are actually putting themselves in danger because they are cutting the wire in close proximity to an electrified third rail."

Some thieves have been electrocuted while trying to steal wire, authorities said. Their typical tools include wire cutters, hacksaws, and handheld power saws that can cut through pipes.

"You can be hit with 13,000 volts at a PSE&G substation," Di Nunzio said.

Metal scavengers have been busy for years, routinely stealing copper wiring and pipes from abandoned buildings. They've even stolen public art, including bronze statues valued at more than $80,000 from the park at the Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Center in Camden in 1995. The statues were later recovered.

But the more recent thefts - from hydrants and utilities - are not just costly; they're dangerous.

Theft at "electrical substations, cellular towers, telephone land lines, railroads, water wells, construction sites . . . presents a risk to both public safety and national security," an FBI report says.

One of the ways authorities track stolen material is through the Philadelphia Scrap Metal Theft Network, which was founded by Peco and has 150 members - law enforcement, utility companies, and security firms - from New York to Virginia. They immediately post information on stolen material online.

Another important strategy in discouraging the thefts involves communication with scrap yards. Yard officials contacted Tuesday declined comment except to say they were fully cooperating with authorities.

The crime "is definitely economy-driven," said Di Nunzio. "It's easy to get money.

"If [the scrap yards] are more vigilant about buying stolen materials, that will cut off the thieves," he said. "If someone comes in with a shopping cart loaded with spools of copper wire, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to see that's suspicious."

Gregory Bucceroni has seen scrap yard operations from the inside, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. As a yard security official, he knows some accepted manhole covers, placards from graveyards, and stolen siding from a church.

"They'd say 'It's not stolen' or 'How do we know it was stolen?' " said Bucceroni, who left the scrap yard job in 2009 and is a crime victim services volunteer with the Youth Violence and Crime Reduction Partnership, a support group that works with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

"The bad economy is good for scrap yards," he said. "What they can't sell, they store. They have mountains of the stuff."