KAIT-Jonesboro, AR-News, weather, sports, classifieds-Copper thefts reported at Region 8 construction sites
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By Josh Harvison - bio | email
JONESBORO, AR (KAIT) – Several general contractors Friday said they were upset with the number of copper thefts they have been forced to report to police in recent weeks. According to Robin Nix, Owner of Exit Realty in Jonesboro, at least three of his properties have been locations where criminal activity has taken place. Nix said he and several other general contractors are tired of construction-site thieves.
"Last weekend they came in and stole all the copper lines, the return lines for the refrigeration unit and they came in a couple of months ago and got the copper coil out of the heating unit," said Nix.
Nix said two properties, which are under construction, have had copper stolen from them. Both properties are located on the same street in the Valley View area.
"A lot of builders around town are having problems with them coming in stealing wire out of the walls and some in cases just ripping the wire out and tearing up sheet rock," said Nix. "It's just really getting bad here the last few weeks."
Nix said he's talking with multiple builders to see if they'd like to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
"One time they even took our trailer up front and loaded up all of our tools and hauled it off in our trailer. The stealing of the copper has really gotten worse here lately," said Nix.
Nix said if the copper products can't be recovered, then the builder is liable for the damages.
"Builder's insurance won't cover this kind of damage. It covers tornadoes and fire and things like that, but it doesn't cover theft. So the builder is just having to eat all these damages," said Nix. "We'd like just for all the homeowners in these neighborhoods where new construction, to watch out for people like that and if they see someone suspicious, you know, hanging around late at night, maybe give a call to the police department."
Marty Boyd with the Craighead County Sheriff's Office said copper theft hasn't been reported as often this year compared to last year. He said that's because the salvaged price of copper and aluminum isn't as high.
"Most copper thefts, you're going to get between 20-30 dollars at most but it's costing the contractors and the homeowners thousands and thousands of dollars to replace the damage that they have done," said Boyd.
"I'm real tired of it. It gets old and they'll do thousands of dollars worth of damage and maybe go get, 20 or 30 dollars at the salvage yard for a little bit of copper. It's just ridiculous," said Nix.
Todd Wilcox, President of the Northeast Arkansas Homebuilder's Association, said laws on construction-site thefts have changed in the last few years. According to Arkansas state law, it is a Class B Felony if someone steals construction materials on a permitted site.
"They've spent weeks and months preparing to get the house ready to put sheetrock on the walls or do whatever and now they're looking at having to get an electrician back over, start all over from scratch and actually worse than scratch because they're having to fix the damage that was done when they pulled the wires when they stole the copper out of it," said Boyd.
"The house down the street, it was closed and locked up and they went in anyway, so they'll get in if they want in and about the only thing we can do is to ask for people to keep their eyes open and watch for them," said Nix.
"It's very difficult if you don't have the eyewitness who saw the theft occur because most of the time we're dealing with property that has no traceable numbers on it," said Boyd. "If they see something that looks suspicious, doesn't look right, they've always worked with the police department, the sheriff's office very very well and they'll call us and say, hey this doesn't look right, have you had this stolen or something like that."
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