Mayor Tomlinson launches copper theft task force | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Thieves have steadily targeted copper in Columbus as the metal’s value soared to record highs this spring. The price of copper has dropped somewhat over the past two months, but was hovering last week above $4 a pound -- up from less than $1 a pound a decade ago.

Air-conditioning units, electrical wiring and piping in unoccupied houses have proved particularly susceptible to thieves, who typically sell the metals for cash.

“I think everyone in real estate is having the same problems,” said Bill Turman, senior vice president of Turman Realty Company. “On a weekly basis, we must have four homes that are broken into. It seems like each time you put up a ‘For Rent’ sign it’s like advertising for it.”

In an effort to stem the thefts, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson has assembled a copper theft task force, a collaboration of the city’s three law enforcement agencies and local real estate managers. The team also includes a commercial developer, who has been targeted repeatedly, and the president of a local scrap metal recycling company.

Beginning next month, the task force will gather the second Tuesday of each month in the mayor’s conference room to share information and swap ideas about combating copper capers. One of the group’s first goals is to offer rewards for any tips leading to an arrest.

“I wish we could get rid of the apathy out there,” said Jim Evans, the owner of Fountain City Realty and a task force member. “Maybe we could make it worthwhile for somebody if they felt like they might get $100 or so for turning someone in. We all expressed a willingness to pony up for a fund.”

In response to a spike in metal thefts in 2008, lawmakers in many states -- including Georgia and Alabama -- passed legislation designed to curb the resale of purloined metals. Recyclers, for instance, are now required to retain photocopied identifications of copper sellers, and record the tag number of vehicles that deliver the metal.

But many observers -- particularly property owners who shell out thousands of dollars a month replacing stripped utilities -- insist the measures have not gone far enough. Some task force members said a more fundamental change would be needed to deter criminals.

“The guy who’s out there stealing my air-conditioner units is more than likely a very petty criminal, and more than likely he’s stealing it to support a drug habit,” said Bud Allen, owner of Allen Development Group.

Allen’s buildings have been targeted so frequently that the company now mounts its air conditioners to the roofs of businesses.

“Offering a reward, I don’t think, will have that great an impact,” Allen said. “But if you cut off their access to an easy outlet to sell it, or you make it more difficult for them to sell the copper, then the problem will go away.”

If nothing else, the monthly meetings will provide property owners a venue to voice their concerns and, perhaps, apply a bit of pressure on law enforcement to follow up on open cases. Several real estate managers have said in interviews that they were unsatisfied with the response to the resurgence of copper theft.

“At first, we saw little or no police response from our calling the theft, so we stopped even reporting them,” said Turman, whose father, Frank Turman, is on the task force. Reaction has improved as the city has added more police officers, Bill Turman said, but “we don’t have many detectives come out and follow up.”

Calls to Columbus police were not returned Friday afternoon. Law enforcement officials have said copper theft can be hard to crack because scrap metal often lacks identifying features, making it difficult to trace.

“Once the copper leaves the site, it becomes indistinguishable from other copper,” Tomlinson said in a phone interview last week, acknowledging the uphill battle the task force faces. “Unlike stealing your TV or something else, it’s really a fungible good. The police are really at a disadvantage -- even if they intercept somebody -- because they don’t know where it came from.”

Theft cases

One recent case in Columbus highlighted the difficulties lawmen face in stemming preventable metal theft. Michael Joyner, a real estate attorney and Recorder’s Court judge, recalled a defendant brought before him on theft charges. The man allegedly swiped about eight of the city’s sewer grates and successfully pawned them to a local recycler, the name of which Joyner could not recall off hand.

“My skin is starting to scrawl,” Joyner said, recalling the preliminary hearing. “I’m thinking, ‘What in the world would anybody be selling sewer grates for, and why in the world would anybody be buying them?’

“Obviously this stuff was not owned by this guy. It wasn’t scrap, it was taken off the city streets,” Joyner added. “If something had happened while it was missing, (the city) would have been in a major lawsuit.”

Investigators could not charge the recycler with receiving stolen property, Joyner said, because they could not prove he knew the grates were stolen. “We’re in tough economic times, and the price of metal and copper has gone so high that it’s made it attractive,” Joyner added. “There’s no question that we’ve got a problem with it.”

Recyclers, for their part, typically take exception to the notion that they are fueling the problem.

“I think there is misinformation, and the biggest one is that if I am shut down or closed up then the thieves will stop stealing,” Mark Kamensky, president of E.J. Knight Scrap Material Co., said in an interview this spring. Kamensky, who was traveling Friday and couldn’t be reached for comment, is the only representative from a local recycling company so far to join the copper theft task force, according to Tomlinson’s office.

In addition to the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office and the Columbus Police Department, the Musocgee County Marshal’s Office also will have a role in the task force.

“Our deputies make contact with a lot of tenants and landlords while out in the field,” Capt. Curtis Lockette said. “With our relationships and knowing a lot of people, we’ll be able to hopefully help to curb some of those copper thefts.”

The property owners certainly hope so.

“A lot of people I guess are just not affected by this and they don’t think about it, but these owners are getting killed out here,” Evans said. “We in the business are desperate to get something done about it, and we will certainly do what we can. We’re all dedicated to doing something.”