Copper Thefts Picking Up: Chicago Thieves Getting Brazen

I’ve talked about the copper thefts in the past. Now, there is a wave of thefts appearing in Chicago.

I’m not surprised. There are hundreds of abandoned homes on the south side of the city- all with some form of copper. The Mayor has proposed legislation that would require foreclosed properties to be boarded up with steel plates to protect the property.

You can forget about any copper gutters still being around. Same with the air conditioning units.

But even in homes that aren’t foreclosed, there are reports nearly weekly of burglaries where the appliances and the air conditioning unit is stolen. You can hear the thieves now: “No, don’t take that laptop. Grab the washing machine.”

How lucrative is it?

On the northside of the city, in Lakeview, a few “smart” thieves have been dressing up in “official looking” uniforms, driving a van, and stealing copper wire in the City’s streetlights. What they do is break into the base of the light, attach something to the end of the wire and simply drive down the street until the wire, about 9 feet long, is pulled out of the lightpole.

One light fixture yields copper worth about $2500.

One night last month, thieves hit two lights in one night. That’s $5000. Not bad for a few hours work.

Recently, thieves tried to steal more copper from a closed hospital in Edgewater. The police actually nabbed one of those guys.

But it isn’t only copper. Thieves recently stole plaques out of Oz Park in Lincoln Park. From the Chicago Tribune:

At approximately 1:45 on the afternoon of Thursday, April 10, Judy Johanson noticed that a crime had been perpetrated on the mean streets of Chicago’s Near North Side.

The plaque was gone from Oz Park’s Cowardly Lion.

While driving past the corner of Dickens and Larrabee, the aforementioned citizen remarked that the perp or perps had unbolted and absconded with a $2,000 piece of bronze bearing the names of the Cowardly Lion’s sculptor and benefactors.

This was not the first time Johanson had uncovered foul play at the park. Four weeks ago, in the garden where she prunes flowerbeds, she detected another heist: Thieves had ripped a similar plaque off the 7-foot bronze Scarecrow.

Yes- it has come to this.

But the metals are too expensive now.

The police - and the public - seem to laugh about these crimes. But if the thieves are taking $5k from two lightpoles in one night- someone has to replace that. And that means it’s going to come out of our pockets.

Maybe it’s not so funny after all.