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Copper Thief Strikes Community Center
July 12, 2011
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a copper thief hit the Byrneville Community Center.
The theft at the county-owned facility was reported Monday. Someone destroyed one of three air conditioning units, stripping out the copper coils, in recent days. Early estimates are that theft could cost the county $3,000 in damage and replacement costs.
Officials said the thief cut the power to the air handling unit before stripping the copper.
The air handling units are located behind a privacy fence, just feet from the community center’s playground.
Anyone with information about the theft should contact the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620 or Gulf Coast Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
Pictured above and below: Crime scene investigators with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office retrieve fingerprints from air conditioning units at the Byrneville Community Center Monday morning. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
22 Responses to “Copper Thief Strikes Community Center”
we are glad to tell you …Byrneville Community Center has a new air unit and its cooling great….ready for your use. We give a big shout out to Escambia County Facilities Management and to John for his dedication in making this happen …we are booked solid this time of year with family reunions and he gave up his day off to make this happen for us….we hope evidence gathered by the sheriff’s department will open a door to make an arrest in this case…we still hope someone will come forward and tell what they know….Thank you Northescambia.com… for your time invested with your web site…it doesn’t get much better and we hope you stay around for a very long time.
Betty Porz. …board member for Byrneville Community Center
Lets see a eight camera system at Sams club cost around $1200.00 with monitor. And yet every day we see that schools and centers are hit with thousands to replace units. Junk yards still buy the copper and aluminum. Your stuff is stole out of your yard and taken to the hock shop and most of the time it is young people stealing and the good old boy will let them hock it knowing that if the owner happens to find it their are the police. The poor old owener has to buy it back from the hock shop. This is a win-win for situation for the hock shop. The only way you can stop crime is to punish people for small crimes instead of turning them loose and their crimes get bigger a bigger as they get older.
My AC is rigged into my alarm system and I am in the process of designing a “cage” to be welded around it. Hopefullly it will slow ‘em down long enough for the cops to get there.
CW,
What is left will go to the HVAC business that installs the new unit. And compressor, fan, etc. will be sold as repair parts to other customers.
In this incident (and the others) too much of the old unit is gone or damaged thus the entire thing will be replaced.
Yank out the easy to yank stuff, do some damage in the process and force entire unit replacement.
Yeah, I think these businesses need security camera’s hidden, and can see everything that goes on around them; also maybe it would be a good idea that when anyone brings in the scrap iron, copper etc… they should also have camera’s at the scrap yard, plus make them sign a form and show proof of ID. Something has to be done…
Cameras would be used to help IDENTIFY, not stop the thieves. Unless they of course, saw the cameras and dismantled and stole them too, which would be a possibility.
Ours was stolen a couple of weeks ago as well. I find it very interesting it will cost the county (tax payers) $3,000. It cost our business $1500. Still waiting to see if ins. company will pay anything since they considered it in a unsecure area.
Jeeperman, that black part in the middle is a scroll compressor, the most expensive part of the unit. I highly doubt any HVAC tech in their right mind would steal bent up copper tubing, and leave behind the compressor, fan motor, and many other expensive parts. This was done by some stupid person who only knows what copper looks like. Just look at how bent up that cabinet is, it’s clear the person went in and snatched the copper as fast as they could.
I also really doubt the HVAC business is slow right now during the middle of summer, they’re always booked up when I call them.
Cameras do not stop thieves.
Steel cages anything else that makes it tough to steal will force the thieves to seek easier pickins.
How does anyone know that the HVAC businesses are not buying the stolen A/C units for 25% of what they will get for it when they take it to the scrap dealer?
And that the thieves are not actually working for the HVAC businesses that will profit from the need to install new A/C units to replace the ones that were stolen????
When business is slow, create a need for your business????
There have been thieves and there will always be thieves.They do it because it is a easy way to make money.They do not have a conscience about doing it.If you don’t wan’t it stole you will have to put up cameras or something like that.There not going to stop.
I recall that a group did fund raisings to put rose bushes and a concrete table in front of the Century Library. A few nights later some low life stole the plants and table. I know times are hard for a lot of people—but to be just a common theft. Some one had to help load the table and pull the plants—wish it had fallen on them.
This is Tuesday…and we are in a meeting now to have a new air unit in place before the week-end…we know the weather is so hot and with out the third unit our kitchen and conference rooms will not be cool…..I will post all information on our progress here…..if you have questions you may call me at 256-3795….we are all at a loss for words and understanding how people can be so heartless….please if you have any information about this crime, call the numbers provided in the article above….Betty Porz…Board Member for Byrneville Community Center
It might help in identifying the thieves if the businesses would put cameras in discreet places & up high so as not to be noticed by the thieves. It would be a lot less expensive than trying to replace some of the things they steal/destroy.
Just a thought.
As always, something like this is a bad thing, but clearly a sign of the times when more and more people’s moral compasses do not point north.
Please lets work together to put a stop to the scrap yards taking this stuff in.They know who is in every other day with a load of ac units , who goes in occassionally and who works for a business that actually deals in ac units, if they don’t know then they need to ask. lets have a cop on each site gathering up info on who is selling this stuff. Lets get the sherriffs dept to tell us what precautions are in place. What can we do to help. We don’t have to sit here and be victims.
Look people, why can’t we get together a make a petion or something , go to the our commissioners or what ever it takes, (point me in the right direction I’ll be there) and get them to tell the scrap yards they can’t take any more of this stuff unless the person bringing it in can prove they work for a company that actually deal with ac units or electrical. The harm currently being done right now will out weight the extra effort that the srcap yard has to take to call a business and ask does (so and so) work for you , are you aware that he/she is here with a load of ac units? How about putting a cop there just to gather info about where a scrappers address is and how many thefts have happened in that neighborhood, then they would have somewhere to start looking for these morons. The scrap yard people know who’s been scrapping legitimately and who is coming every other day with a load of ac units. Its not that the scrap yard is at fault but that they have the ability to be a huge asset in deterring this activity.
Why do people want to be this way? I swear, I don’t get it!!! Seems that no one can have anything these days, for others wanting to be destructive and take what is rightfully not theirs. Then in the end, it is all of our tax paying money that has to replace all of this. I do hope that they are caught and not just slapped on the wrist… This is true criminals, find them and lock them up! Hopefully they have camera’s, if not then they need them!
Lets, all of us keep our eyes open! In this small community we are bound to see something. And we all have a pretty good guess at who is doing the deeds, see-em and report-em. We can all show up in court and besure the book is thrown at them.
These thieves could be caught if those buying the copper from them turned them in.. It should not be hard for buyers to tell that something is wrong when someone is trying to sell copper A/C coils that are almost new, especially if the crooks have several of them for sale at one time..
All these recycling centers are making it easy for these miscreants. Just take a drive down the 4 lane between Brewton and Flomaton and see all the scrap being hauled. I’m double dog sure most are good people, but all you need is a valid drivers license to sell it. No questions asked unless it’s a automobile. Crackheads love easy money…
Nasty pieces of garbage. Not likely they will be caught however, seems like
most of the thieves and criminals up here are never caught. Doesn’t matter
to much, they just slap all the criminals hands up here. It ends up
costing us much more than it does them, and we never get the money back.
EVERYONE has to be very vigilant these days, and take care of what is YOURS.
Good Grief! Give our small community a break wasn’t that long ago that a huge coke machine was stolen from the front of it. Pure disgusting and a little to close to home. Byrneville used to be a community that you could leave ur house unlocked and not worry about anything. So sad that’s it’s come to this. I hope they are caught!