Companies Try to Combat Copper Wire Theft as Incidents Spike in Oregon, Washington
And the lengths some thieves will go for the valuable metal, Chason said, are practically endless.
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): James Cory, procurement director at Calbag Metals, knows exactly what to look for when people drop off metal scraps for cash.
'So, it's a real thing for us; we do see suspicions daily,' said Cory. 'A lot of times, it'll be car parts or something you can tell was made directly from a manufacturer ... and you can tell it was taken from their yard, typically a place of business.'
Thefts of metals like copper have been on the rise. And typically, metals that come into a recycling plant like Calbag are unmarked, making it hard to trace or know for sure that it's been stolen.
Copper, for example, can be stripped from wires — wires that thieves can find just about anywhere, said Cory.
Right now, copper goes for about $4 per pound. That can add up.
'You've got over 300 pounds on the scale there, so you could be looking at something in the neighborhood of $1,200 dollars,' said Craig Tuckman, chief operating officer at Calbag.
'We don't want to be caught up buying stolen material from anyone; it's just a liability and a risk,' said Cory.
That's why Dan Chason tries to stop the theft before it happens. He oversees theft and vandalism at CenturyLink, recently rebranded as Lumen Technologies.
'I eat it, drink it, sleep it, 24 hours a day,' said Chason with a laugh. 'There's an uptick on the damage that's being done that's affecting many parts of our day-to-day lives.'
Thieves are cutting CenturyLink cables, according to Chason, and stealing the copper from inside the rubber-encased wires.
Washington and Oregon are the leading states in the nation for this kind of theft, according to CenturyLink data. So far this year, they've reported copper thefts more than 370 times from their cables in Washington. In Oregon, it's been more than 140 times so far this year, compared to 79 incidents all last year.
'It is a direct attack on critical infrastructure,' said Chason.
Images from CenturyLink show recently damaged wires in Oregon. Every time a cable is cut, the company says, there's a service outage affecting anywhere from 10 to 100,000 customers.
'When that service is disrupted, it can affect public safety; it can affect Grandma who lives in the way back of nowhere and she falls and breaks her hip and can't call 911; it affects police, fire, medical; it affects all of it,' said Chason. 'My fear is at this rate, eventually, it's going to cause a death — not contribute to it, it's going to cause a death — because someone can't get help.'
And the lengths some thieves will go for the valuable metal, Chason said, are practically endless.
'It's driven by a couple of things,' he said. 'The factors that address it most is the availability and the ease at which they can sell it, 'How can I make a profit on it?' Some of this is narcotics-driven; a large majority of it is a group of people looking to get their next fix.'
Homeless in Northwest Portland, a man named John said he's been scrounging metal scraps to sell for a long time. He's been on the streets for 40 years — and those scraps, he said, have helped him get by. He's able to spend the money he gets on food, cigarettes, rides or bus tickets, or just to loan it to people, he said.
'This is from a dumpster down the way, actually,' John said. Strands of coiled copper lay around his camp. 'I usually clean it during the day, and I usually find it at night. ... From motors; it's the windings inside the motor. It's a serious task.'
Calbag Metals is located just down the street from John's tent. State law requires that they wait three days to reimburse people for metal, so there's some time to trace its origin. They also require ID.
'We're not going to accept material that is stolen,' said Tuckman.
John said he doesn't have ID, so he doesn't turn his metal in 'that often.' Instead, he has other people do it for him, he said.
Meanwhile, CenturyLink is now moving away from copper wire, turning to less-profitable material in its cables and adding GPS trackers to cables in problem areas, including Portland.
'We can't stop it alone,' said Chason. 'The police can't stop it alone. If you see something, say something.'
Courtesy: www.kgw.com