Last year we ran a report called "Grand Theft Copper," and told you how business, construction sites, even churches were being targeted by thieves to steal their copper.

Well, a year has passed, and the wave of copper crime continues unabated.

Take South Africa, as an example.

Copper thieves are stealing as much as 100 miles of copper piping each year in Cape Town. One hundred miles of copper pipe would connect Baltimore to Philadelphia.

At a crisis meeting this week with scrap metal dealers, Cape Town's mayor, Helen Zille, said the wholesale plundering of insulation cables, wires and even manhole covers threatened to bring the tourist hub "to its knees" - a fear shared by business leaders throughout the country. "Nobody will invest in a city if you can't rely on something as basic as an electricity supply," she said. "The entire infrastructure, from sewerage substations to electricity generating points, are being vandalized for the sake of a few bucks."

The cable crisis is not unique to South Africa. Record prices for copper and other metals have led to an upsurge in theft and associated disruption in many other countries, said Rens Bindeman, a consultant advising South African authorities on how to tackle the problem.

But in South Africa, authorities fear it is spiraling out of control and will only worsen as the country rolls out infrastructure projects ahead of the 2010 World Cup.

 

South African authorities say shadowy syndicates are to blame, paying thieves to steal copper cable and other metal items. Scrap dealers then melt down the metal, and there are growing signs that the finished product ends up in China, which has an insatiable appetite for raw materials.

Although the Western Cape province has no copper mines - the north of the country does - local business leaders reported that the region exported 77 million rands, or $11-million (U.S.) worth of copper to China last year. Nationally, it costs an estimated $70-million to replace stolen cables every year and $350-million in knock-on losses, including the impact of power outages.

Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, police arrested a scrap metal dealer they say knowingly bought stolen copper cable.

Troy V. Flanagan, 61, faces initial charges of theft and corrupt business influence.

Detective Thomas Hildebrand, working undercover, went to Flanagan's scrap yard with copper power lines three times in April, telling Flanagan each time that the material was stolen, according to an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police report.

Flanagan still purchased the cable, according to the report, paying Hildebrand on videotaped transactions, police said. A number listed for his company, T.V.F. of Indianapolis, rang Thursday to a message saying the line was being checked for trouble.

Another scrap metal dealer was charged last month with corrupt business influence and four counts of attempting to receive stolen property. One of his employees also faces two counts of attempting to receive stolen property.

Indiana and states nationwide have seen a rash of scrap metal thefts as prices for copper, aluminum and other metals have increased over recent years.

Greenwood Police Chief Joe Pitcher said his city has had numerous reports of copper thefts.

"We literally go to the construction sites and warn people," Pitcher said. "Some sites are now putting fencing around their complete site."

In March, the copper downspouts were torn away from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Indianapolis. Thieves previously destroyed seven of the church's air conditioners to rip out copper inside.

In at least one Indiana case, police believe scrap metal thefts led to violence. In January, the bodies of four homeless men known to be "scrappers" were found in two South Bend manholes. Two men were charged in the murders, which police said stemmed from a dispute over scrap metal.

Thousands of dollars worth of copper gutters were stripped off a church in Fort Wayne this week.

The Indiana General Assembly passed a law this year that could help police crack down on scrap metal theft. The law requires scrap metal recyclers to keep records of customers selling metals commonly used in construction.

And then, in Bloomington, two men were arrested Tuesday afternoon on suspicion of stealing brass fixtures and brass plates meant for future tombstones.

Rialto police found the men Tuesday trying to sell the items at a recycling plant and reported them to the Sheriff's Department Fontana station, said San Bernardino County sheriff's Deputy Quentin Holiday.

The stolen items came from Green Acres Memorial Park & Mortuary in Bloomington and were stolen within the past two days, police said Wednesday.

San Bernardino County sheriff's Sgt. Richard Hahn said he believed the crime was a metal theft "taken to new heights."

Holiday said Rialto police detectives reported the incident to the Sheriff's Department about 2 p.m. Tuesday when they saw the suspects walk into American Recycling in Fontana while working on another case.

Police, who did not identify the men because the investigation is ongoing, said the pair had brass plates that detectives recognized as being intended for a headstone, Holiday said.

The markers, which were cut to a manageable size, were removed from a warehouse storage garage, Holiday said.

He said police were able to put eight nameplates back together, and there were several more pieces for at least one additional nameplate. The nameplates were worth about $1,500 each, Holiday said.

There were also about 17 brass flower vases recovered. Each one was worth about $300, Holiday said.

"They did not work for the mortuary," Holiday said. He said the men "happened upon" the warehouse through sheer chance.

Glenn A. Abercrombie, general manager of the mortuary for nine years, said there has not been a total determined for the damage.

"This is a first - thefts are very rare in cemeteries," Abercrombie said.

Brass and copper thefts have become a problem, a spokesman for Southern California Edison said. The utility company has been the target of numerous copper wire thefts.

Steven Conroy, spokesman for Southern California Edison, said he believes the high price for copper could possibly be attributed to the materials being sent overseas to meet demand.

"But why, I don't know," Conroy said.

Ernie Alvarez, manager of Ontario recycling yard Main Street Fibers, said copper was selling between $2.85 and $3.10 a pound for the past month. The price peaked last year at close to $4 a pound.

"It's been pretty stable - but from what I understand, no one knows where the market will be," Alvarez said.

Take a look at some of the police from around the southern U.S.

• A Boone County man was charged with armed robbery and burglary while armed with a deadly weapon after, police say, he threatened another man with a knife and took copper building materials from a Carmel business May 30.

• Earlier this month, thieves made off with up to $15,000 in copper pipes from a Clark-Pleasant Schools construction site.

• In April, air conditioners containing copper were stolen or vandalized in at least five shops in a Greenwood strip mall.

• Homes and businesses across the region have reported thefts of air-conditioning units, which contain a significant amount of copper.

Copper is the world's third most widely used metal after iron and aluminum. Over the past five years, the price of copper has increased about $2.65. Copper closed Wednesday at $3.3921 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Metropolitan police arrested a Westside scrap dealer after, they say, he knowingly purchased stolen goods.

Lt. Paul Vrbka with the York County Sheriff's Department says they've received two reports in the last two days of copper wires and cables being stolen from center pivots — specifically in the Bradshaw area.

"It looks like it's starting again," Vrbka said yesterday, "with copper being worth a lot of money."

Last summer, one man was arrested in the rural Benedict area and charged with stealing a very large amount of copper and other metals — which seemed to make the crime stop, until now.

"We are hearing that there's been a lot of these types of theft in Lancaster County as well," Vrbka said.

"If farmers are out checking their pivots, especially at night, and they see a person or a vehicle that's suspicious, they need to give us a call," Vrbka said. "If anyone sees anything out of the ordinary, any time of day, give us that information."

Lt. Gov. James Aiona, acting governor in Gov. Linda Lingle's absence, has signed a bill to make copper theft a felony, after more than a year of increasingly brazen thefts of copper wiring on Oahu in Hawaii.

House Bill 1246, signed Tuesday by Aiona while Gov. Lingle was in Japan, also requires scrap dealers to identify and document all copper purchases.

A Honolulu Police Department sting operation caught an Oahu business buying copper that was clearly marked HECO, indicating it was property of Hawaiian Electric Co.

In another case, a homeless person died in a fall from a utility pole when he touched a live wire in an apparent attempt to steal the wire.

Whole stretches of highway have gone without street lights because of copper thefts, with some thieves snipping the wires by day in plain view of motorists, then returning at night to actually take the wire.

After a string of copper thefts from construction sites, Austin, Texas police have gotten proactive when it comes to thwarting thieves.

Recent incidents include thieves even stealing copper piping from Habitat for Humanity homes under construction in East Austin.

So the Austin Police Department developed a program for recyclers to better identify sellers of stolen copper. Officers are educating themselves so they can catch the culprits in the act.

"We have a little PowerPoint program that shows the different forms that copper can be stolen in, the different cases that are involved with copper," Det. Kevin Bartles said. "This way when they're on patrol, they can be aware of the places in their sectors and their districts that store a lot of wiring and cabling."