Copper Thieves Causing Trouble For Local Sports Complex

For the last few days, the back fields at the All-Star Sports Complex have been daytime use only.

Thieves cut through the gate, went through a door and into a transformer to get copper wire.

“Locked gates, locked building, private property, trespassing,” said Tami Higgins of All-Star. “

They think it happened overnight Saturday.

“Went down to turn on the irrigation and found the copper wires cut from the PSO box to the panel we use to turn the lights on,” Higgins recalled.

The theft left three fields in the dark, cut into the weekend's business, and it's not the first time.

Just up the road, the City of Tulsa continues repairs, replacing copper with aluminum wire, adding locks to light poles to keep thieves out.

The City has replaced wire and repaired the damage on several highways, including Highway 169.

There's much more work left along 412, 244, I-44, Highway 75 and the B.A.

And now, the Mayor's Office is asking Councilors to put another $1 million into repairs to speed up the process.

“We appropriated this last one million dollars, to appropriate enough funding to finish up the highway lighting and get it done maybe six months to a year earlier,” explained Tulsa City Councilor David Patrick.

The new timeline will turn on the lights on the other highways by late this year, instead of next summer.

Back at All-Star, their repairs took two days, and they're still waiting on the final bill.

The new city effort to repair highway lights comes after a police task force has made some arrests of copper thieves, but they are still active and causing problems.