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 The incident was reported on January 4th, when a former AT&T employee was busted for stealing company copper. Over the past few years, skyrocketing costs for metals – particularly copper – have turned what was once a small nuisance into a major problem. Today’s thieves have been known to target everything from cell towers, roof-top air units, flashing and gutters to cables, wires and pipes. Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy reports that last year copper theft resulted in more than $1 billion lost.
The increase in copper theft is predominantly fueled by the rising cost of precious metals and bolstered by the fact that many of the thieves get away with the crime, selling the stolen copper to scrap metal yards for a per-pound rate. Telcos have taken such a large hit, many offer rewards for any tips that lead to the arrest of the suspects in addition to installing surveillance cameras and added security guards. The biggest issue with copper theft, however, is not that it costs Telcos a great deal of money to replace the wire and fix any collateral damage that was caused by ripping pipes and wires out of walls (the costs of which far exceed the actual cost of the stolen copper), but that it is dangerous. Without copper wires, victims (i.e. residents and businesses) would have no way of contacting authorities in the event of an emergency. In the case of the former AT&T employee, New Orleans Police took 30 year old Patrick Stewart into custody after he allegedly broke into the provider’s facility and stole equipment on 17 separate occasions. According to the police, Stewart began his copper crime spree in November and in addition to the theft, he is also accused of attempting to assault a sheriff’s deputy who witnessed him in AT&T’s storage yard a few weeks back. Stewart worked for the provider four years ago, and is believed to have sold the stolen copper spools to a local recycling business; it is unclear as to what he did with the profits. Additional Information The Washington, D.C.-based Coalition Against Copper Theft (CACT) is an advocacy group comprised of leading U.S. trade associations that are troubled with the pervasive outbreak of copper theft. According to the CACT, the theft of copper is a widespread, “opportunistic crime targeting transportation, communication, and electricity networks.” at&t internet service provider , at&t ethernet service
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