[gilligan]

Thieves have broken into a vacant building Danny Bullington owns several times in the past year, pulling out copper wire, coils and any other copper they could get their hands on.

Bullington says he's sick of it.

Of the wiring that's left in the south Macon building, there are signs that the culprits tried to take it, too.

"We just know they're coming back," he said. "It's so frustrating."

Bullington finds himself the victim of a troubling national trend: As the resale value of copper spikes, so do the number of thefts.

The price of copper has doubled in the past year, to about $2 a pound, and that has made the metal a prime target.

Churches, construction sites, air-conditioning units and cell-phone towers have been hit, said Capt. David Davis, a spokesman for the Bibb County Sheriff's Office. Some thieves are even taking pieces of ground wire from utility poles. In Bibb County, Davis said, there were about 30 copper thefts in 2005, and almost that many so far this year.

"It's an easy metal to get because it's a metal that's in a lot of different things. It's an easy mark for people who want to make some money," he said. "With these thefts, you'd think it was worth the price of gold."

Typically the thieves have hit abandoned houses, but secluded businesses have been hit as well, he said. And because churches don't always have someone there, they are sometimes a target.

Last week, two Macon men were charged with breaking into the Westfield Schools in Perry to try to steal copper wire. After their arrests, Perry police began contacting other law-enforcement agencies in the area to see if the men might be wanted in connection with other cases.


TOUGHER CITY LAW?

A potential new ordinance regulating scrap metal sales was discussed during Monday's meeting of the Macon City Council's Public Safety Committee.

The ordinance, proposed by Councilman Mike Cranford, was tabled to allow city officials to compare it to existing state law to see if a local ordinance is necessary.

But Cranford said he would like to see the proposal become law, so police will be "more aware" of rules that require identification and proof of ownership before scrap metal can be sold.

"I don't think the law was being followed," Cranford said.

Macon police detective David Freeland said it's difficult to catch the thieves because scrap businesses may not always know if something is stolen. Scrap buyers have to record identification from sellers. Police sometimes look at who's selling the scrap and look for patterns, he said.

Alvin Hirsh, co-owner of Aluminum Recycling of Warner Robins, said state law began requiring scrap buyers to record a seller's ID after a copper price spike in the early 1990s.

Sometimes it can be difficult to tell if something is stolen, he said, but there are signs.

"If someone brings in something that looks too good to be scrap, you have to ask questions and be on the alert," Hirsh said.

Art Barry, an industrial real estate broker in Macon, said several buildings he's trying to sell have been hit recently. Ten years ago the thefts were rare, but now it's almost expected, Barry said.

The former Dan River Mills facility in Peach County has been targeted, as well as several buildings in Bibb County, Barry said. The damage has reached in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases.

New locks and part-time security guards could not keep the thieves out of the Peach County facility, he said.

"It's slowed them down but it hasn't stopped the problem. The problem is that the sheriff's department can't sit in your building and baby-sit your building."

Barry said it's often difficult to get insurance for vacant buildings, and full-time security is expensive, although he recommends it to his clients.

He suggested that the owners of vacant buildings all pay for a security guard to go from one site to the next in search of thieves.

Hirsh said there doesn't seem to be a stop to the price increases, as the demand in other parts of the world continues.

Right now he pays about $2 a pound for copper, about double what it was a year ago.

He said his prices reflect the market.

"Everybody's thinking it's going to stop, but it keeps going up," he said

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/14201408.htm



the meth heads are stealing it. i have seen 3 or 4 times they arrested people and they all were meth heads.