Everyone is paying the price for metal thieves

Metal theft mainly occurs beneath the surface, out of sight.

But wire by wire and pipe by pipe, metal thieves are gutting homes and businesses. They're hitting churches, parks and power poles -- up to 20,000 of them -- across Wichita and into the suburbs.

"It's like termites," said Wichita police Detective Aaron Harrison.

Harrison works as a lead investigator in what police say is a persistent metal-theft plague. It began about two years ago when the price for scrap copper rose above $2 a pound.

The thieves also take stainless steel, brass and aluminum. Everything from beer kegs to air-conditioning parts to sprinkler equipment to doors, windows, gutters and siding gets stolen and sold for scrap at a tiny fraction of the replacement cost.

The losses range from less than $100 to $20,000 and more.

Police say it costs everyone. Taxpayers have to pay to repair damage to parks and schools. Utility companies pass on the cost of replacing stolen wire to ratepayers.

At least 10 Wichita churches reported metal thefts last year, records show.

And someone keeps raiding Kansas Humane Society recycling bins.

Last week, thieves kept police busy. The city discovered that looters had systematically swiped thousands of dollars worth of electrical wire from at least four parks.

In the same week, police responded to a major loss at the Maize South Middle School sports complex, in the 3700 block of North Tyler. Thieves broke into an electrical room to access wire powering the playing-field lights. The culprits stripped coils from a concession-stand ice machine and pulled wire from underground conduit. The initial damage report: about $20,000.

Wichita police Capt. Darrell Haynes said the level of theft is the worst he's seen in 32 years of policing, and he attributes it to high scrap prices.

Ground wires missing

Westar Energy and its 219,000 electrical customers in Wichita and the suburbs are among those who feel the greatest impact.

The utility estimates that 10,000 to 20,000 utility poles in the metro area are missing sections of ground wires because copper thieves snipped them off, said Marc Anderson, a Wichita-based Westar manager.

All of the suburbs have been hit, and in some Wichita neighborhoods an intact ground wire is becoming the exception, Anderson said.

Thieves clip out a section of ground wire from near the ground to as high as they can reach. Each section might net the thief about $2 from a scrap buyer. But it costs the utility about $150 to send a truck and a worker to replace just one section, Anderson said. The cost ends up in people's electric bills.

The missing wires threaten safety and service. A ground wire diverts excess voltage to the ground when lightning strikes or tree limbs fall on power lines. Ground wires protect the utility's equipment and residents' appliances.

To combat the theft, Westar is replacing stolen ground wire with copper-coated steel that has little scrap worth. The utility hopes "the thieves will realize that they're wasting their efforts," Anderson said.

Rural areas get hit, too. Under cover of darkness last fall, someone went into remote oil fields in Butler County and used chain saws to cut down power poles and strip them and the transformers of wire, he said.

Fighting the problem

Westar urges the public to be alert and call 911.

But Anderson said, "You can't solve this problem with law enforcement alone."

Much of the solution rests with putting more pressure on scrap dealers to screen what they buy from people bringing batches of metal, Anderson said.

Requiring a scrap seller to show a certificate of origin would help, he said.

A law passed last year by the Legislature requires someone bringing in scrap to show a picture ID -- if the sale amount exceeds $50, he said.

But for the typical thief bringing in smaller bundles at a time, Anderson said, "you can still stay under that threshold, and nobody will even ask your name."

Haynes, the police captain, favors a requirement for metal processors to electronically report people who sell to them, "so we know who's selling what."

Although some of the big capers show planning and knowledge of electrical systems, police say the thieves are often homeless and addicted to drugs, especially methamphetamine. They are grabbing metal and quickly selling it, and they don't worry about getting caught, police say.

Because the crimes are non-violent and because jails and prisons are crowded, the thieves spend little time behind bars.

Police concede that it can be difficult for scrap buyers to know if someone is trying to sell them stolen metal. Wire comes in stripped of identifying marks. Sometimes, thieves use someone else to sell for them.

And for police, proving that a batch of wire came from a certain building can be difficult.

"So you're always kind of behind the curve on this," Haynes said.

Still, police regularly make metal-theft arrests.

One area of success is the city's aerospace industry. Police have worked with the companies and their contractors to reduce theft of high-end metals used in aircraft.

Across the nation last year, more than half the states, including Kansas, considered legislation to combat thefts, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. The proposals included government-issued ID cards for sellers, fingerprinting of sellers and requirements for verifying sources of metal.

"Clearly, scrap dealers need to share information (with other scrap dealers), work with law enforcement, train employees to know what to look for," said Bryan McGannon, spokesman for the trade association.

But the policing burden shouldn't fall on scrap dealers, McGannon said.

In Wichita, imposing too many regulations would be "unfair, and it's unnecessary and it won't do any good," said Sheldon Kamen, a former City Council member who owns the Kamen Inc. recycling and scrap metal operation on East 21st. It is one of about 10 licensed scrap processors in the city.

"We don't buy it," Kamen said of stolen metal. "If it's something they shouldn't have, then we turn them away.

"But the disreputable (buyers) are because it's a huge source of profit."

When someone comes in with metal, "we ask them questions, and sometimes they're pretty nervous, and it depends on if we know them or not," Kamen said.

He said his business has a policy that should be used by other entities that buy scrap metal: Kamen Inc. pays cash for scrap up to $30; any amount exceeding that gets paid only by check or cash draft so there will be a transaction record. He contends the policy keeps away thieves looking for quick cash.

Seeing the damage

Last week, Haynes visited some of the harder-hit neighborhoods. He pulled his unmarked car into a parking lot along East 21st Street, near I-135, in a corridor revitalized in recent years by extensive public and private investment.

Haynes gestured to a vacant building that had been a neighborhood market.

"This whole building here has just been devastated," he said. Thieves tore out copper wiring and refrigeration and cooling equipment.

"This one across the street, it used to be a Burger King. It's had the inside stripped out."

Minutes later, as Haynes drove through a neighborhood near 21st and Hillside, he said, "Every one of these boarded-up houses is vulnerable to theft."

Om Chauhan knows that first-hand. Last year, at one of his rental houses, thieves stole a succession of AC units.

Then, about two months ago, he said, "we caught a guy red-handed."

"He was ripping the pipes out in my basement," Chauhan said.

"I had to chase him two blocks," the 67-year-old said. "I called (911), and they kept telling me, 'Don't keep chasing him, because he might be dangerous.'

"Then the police came; they caught him. But I pretty much run him down, to the point where he was tired."

The thief pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

At another one of Chauhan's rental properties, a copper-pipe thief caused about $2,500 in damage after water flooded part of the home. Chauhan couldn't charge more rent to recoup his loss because "the market won't bear it," he said.

'Could have blown up'

On Tuesday, Haynes stopped near Estelle and Shadybrook, where officers had two suspects in separate patrol cars. Nearby, an officer stood over a bundle of copper pipe, bent and broken into 4-foot lengths and wrapped in a sheet.

Officers suspected that the two men stole the pipe from a vacant house around the corner. Someone had seen men carrying something out of the house and called 911.

Haynes estimated the pipe might fetch $10 from a scrap yard, but it would cost the owner hundreds of dollars to have a plumber replace it.

In the house, officers found that someone broke off the copper plumbing connected to a water heater, causing gas to spew and requiring officers to shut off the valve and ventilate the house.

"This thing could have blown up," Haynes said.

On the way back to City Hall, Haynes stopped again at the gutted store building on East 21st Street. He pointed out where thieves pulled copper from industrial AC units on the store roof and atop a vacant gasoline station next door.

The damage could make it harder to open new businesses in the buildings, Haynes said. "You pretty much got to put in all new air conditioning and power."

At the back of the store, he spotted some of a thief's leavings: a pile of insulation that had been stripped off thick wire.

Back in his car, along East Central, he pointed out utility pole after utility pole with sections of missing ground wire.

Hardening the target

At AAA Restaurant Supply on East Central, owner Fred Erdman is waging his own battle against metal thieves.

At least 12 times last year, thieves broke into a fenced area outside the store where Erdman leaves used aluminum and stainless steel equipment.

He has spent more than $1,000 repairing the fencing where thieves have cut their way in.

He keeps reinforcing the enclosure, lining it with stout iron and heavy, bulky equipment.

After someone took the gate off its hinges, he had the hardware welded.

Barbed wire tops the fence. He wishes he could put razor-sharp concertina wire there but doesn't know if the city code would allow it.

His strategy: "Make it as hard as possible" for the thieves.

"But they'll still find a way."