Copper thieves strike again in Tulsa. They’re stealing copper from homes, churches, construction sites, just about everywhere. A home builder is the latest victim of the thieves. News On 6 anchor
Tuesday, July 10th 2007, 5:00 pm
By: News On 6
Copper thieves strike again in Tulsa. They’re stealing copper from homes, churches, construction sites, just about everywhere. A home builder is the latest victim of the thieves. News On 6 anchor Craig Day reports they targeted a South Tulsa construction site taking copper and leaving a lot of damage behind.
On July 4th thieves targeted a 10,000 square foot, million dollar plus home in South Tulsa. They took the copper from six air conditioning units.
"Which totaled about 512 feet of copper, weighing about 450 to 500 pounds,†said Ron Demaree with RBD Construction. “And they can go cash that in at a couple of locations here in town that buy copper."
A couple of hours worth of stealing likely netted the thieves $1,000. But it costs the builder much more when you factor in the damage.
"Seems to me like if you come in and bring a lot of copper in, somebody needs to ask some questions. Because after the fifth or sixth, somebody was selling a lot of copper," said Demaree.
Tulsa Police say there are five to ten copper thefts every single week. What makes this case a little different is that the construction company has such good surveillance video. So there's a good chance of catching the copper thieves. Police say the video is a big help.
"Somebody will recognize the car. Somebody will recognize the suspect and we're hoping that will lead to a Crimestoppers tips so that we can find this person and charge them with the crime he committed," Tulsa Police Detective Debra Glenn said.
Builder Ron Demaree is adding even better security cameras to help prevent any more thefts. And he promises to pursue the prosecution of the thieves until they're behind bars.
"Until you can lock a house down, we as builders are exposed and we're just going to have to band together and start doing kind of like what I did here, just put up some video and try to identify these guys and try to catch them," said Demaree.
If you recognize the suspect’s vehicle, or have any information that might help police, call Crimestoppers at 596-COPS. You can remain anonymous and if your tip leads to an arrest you could earn a cash reward.