Crooks steal wiring inside tornado sirens

ATLANTA (Scrap Monster): People who live in a community where someone stole the equipment that operates the early warning tornado sirens say the crooks have a lot of nerve.

Residents say the thieves stole a piece of their safety.

"Oh somebody stole it. Oh wow." That's what Deena Holland and her friend said after they drove by and noticed someone had stolen the early tornado warning sirens equipment in their Swan Lake community.

Holland said nothing is safe anymore. "If it's not bolted in concrete it's not safe anymore," she said.

The Henry County Emergency Management Agency recently added the early warning sirens to the north end of the county. They say this theft comes at a bad time.

"This weekend we have severe weather coming in," Don Ash, Director of the Emergency Management Agency said.

Soon after the equipment was installed someone stole the copper out of one in another part of the county and now, a second one.

The equipment weighed about 850 pounds.

"They had to take some energy and some effort to get it out of there," Ash said.

Ash says it will take about $6,000 to get the equipment at Lakeshore and Swan Lake Drive back up and running. It will take about 10 days to repair.

The new system will be more secure and have a warning system that will sound off if it's tampered with.

"Definitely if you hear sirens sounding and it’s not severe weather notify the 911 center immediately," Ash said.

Holland says the person who silenced their community should be ashamed.

"You got some gall. You got some gall. I mean right here. This is a very busy little intersection here," she said.

Director Ash is urging anyone who sees someone tampering with this equipment to contact police.

Police are checking with scrap shops to see if someone tried to sell the equipment.

Courtesy: www.wsbtv.com