WIRE, TUBING STOLEN FOR VALUABLE METAL

The relentless demand for construction materials in China is having an unexpected ripple effect locally: Thieves are ripping into walls and air conditioning units of vacant buildings to strip them of valuable copper wire and tubing that eventually end up overseas.

PG&E also reports a rise in copper thefts from some of its utility yards, particularly around San Jose and Santa Cruz.

Among the incidents reported to area police this year:

• In March, copper wire was reported stolen from a lab at StanfordHospital.

• In May, someone cut through a chain-link fence on North Blaney Avenue in Cupertino and took copper wire from a PG&E facility.

• In August, $20,000 worth of copper wire was stolen from an abandoned warehouse in the 1800 block of Dobbin Drive in San Jose. Someone used a stolen truck to pull down electrical cables inside the building.

• In September, copper wire was stolen from the electrical room at AlmaPlaza in Palo Alto.


The problem is serious enough that the Silicon Valley chapter of the Building Owners and Manager's Association is forming a security committee to work with law enforcement, security companies and metal recyclers to help deter and track down thieves.

``We are meeting with the San Jose Police Department to understand better how we can work with them, and we're self-educating on the best ways to protect our properties during the business day as well as evenings,'' said Robert Jacobvitz, BOMA-Silicon Valley's executive director.

The group will also coordinate with the recyclers who are buying copper at all-time-high rates upward of $1.50 a pound. Copper prices have risen 42 percent in the past year, mainly because of increased demand from China and India, according to statistics from Bloomberg News. China's economy has been growing at an average 9 percent a year since the late 1970s, a rate of sustained growth never before seen in a major world economy.

A spokesman for Sims Metal in San Jose said his company buys scrap copper, sorts it into specific grades, packages it and ships it worldwide, mostly to Asia. There, the scrap is melted down and made into new product for plumbing and wiring.

Selling copper ``is pretty profitable,'' said Bob Puts of PG&E's corporate security department in San Jose. ``It goes for about $1.69 a pound, and if you get one of the thicker wires, it's about three pounds to the foot.''

Puts said PG&E recently found 8,000 pounds of copper fittings at one recycling yard that were most likely stolen from the utility.

Jacobvitz said BOMA members' losses -- from the copper itself and the damage to buildings -- have totaled in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Recyclers say they try to keep an eye out for suspect materials but acknowledge it's not always easy to tell what's legitimate. Metals come to them from any number of sources, such as haulers, construction companies, demolition crews and individuals.

``It's very difficult to determine which has not been stolen. Bare copper is bare copper,'' said one recycling manager who didn't want his name used. ``Unless we're able to get some distinct information, it's difficult to determine what has been stolen and what came from a scrap source.''
He said standard procedure in the industry is to get identification from sellers, log in each transaction and turn the information over to police if asked.


Ill-gotten goods can hurt their business, too. If they do determine copper is stolen, the recycler said, ``we have to return it to the rightful owner, and most likely not recover the money we paid for it.''

There are some red flags, however. Unusually large quantities, new-looking materials or frequent visits from the same person can indicate stolen metals, in which case recyclers say they probably wouldn't buy them.

That's the kind of awareness that BOMA and the police are hoping to cultivate.
``When somebody walks in with 5,000 pounds of copper tubing, it didn't fall off a truck somewhere,'' Jacobvitz said.


Still, while building managers are strategizing on security, copper thieves are getting more brazen -- with sometimes dangerous or even fatal consequences.

San Jose Police Sgt. A.J. Young recalled an incident in which someone cut through 30 air conditioning units on a commercial rooftop to rip the copper coils out of them. And police believe a woman was trying to steal copper from a high-voltage meter near Meridian and Foxworthy avenues in October when she was jolted by an electrical charge and burned over half of her body.

Just last week, the Stockton Record reported that a San JoaquinCounty man was electrocuted while stealing copper from power lines in a field near Tracy.

Farther afield, thieves removed the copper roof of Cleveland's St. Theodosius Cathedral in October.

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