The city of Pasadena is seeing a surge in street light copper thefts resulting in thousands of dollars in damage to nearly 300 city lights in the past three months.
Thieves open the electrical boxes on the floor cut the wire from one street to another and pull out hundreds of feet of this copper to then turn around and sell it, according to the city.
“We got here in the morning and we saw that it was the whole thing was taken off and the wires were cut,” Sonia Seda Lopez described what her family saw when they arrived to work at Johnny’s Air Conditioning on Corson Street the morning of January 6.
Thieves had tried steal the copper wire from the light pole in front of her family’s 30-year business.
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“Right now, with daylight savings, it gets dark pretty quickly,” she said, “So it's scary to not have light and not feel safe.”
Luckily, she said Pasadena Public Works restored the light the next day, but according to city documents, this was one of five of these thefts in the city that same night.
Copper thefts have been happening all over the Los Angeles County area, the city says as thieves attempt to sell the copper to recycling centers for cash.
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Right now, copper can sell for more than $3 dollars a pound, according to recycling websites.
“We were speechless. We couldn't believe how someone came and vandalized right in front of our property,” Seda Lopez said, adding that they also had a man hop the fence recently, trying to take copper from their AC equipment. They caught him on their surveillance cameras and called police. The man took off with nothing.
“It could be the same people. I don't know what's going on here, but it's definitely a safety issue for us,” she concluded.
From mid-November to mid-January, police say there have been 34 incidents of copper theft totaling five miles worth of wire and 280 city lights damaged.
Pasadena Police have been able to make a few arrests, one including three people in December, where a resident called police while the crime was taking place.
A spokesperson for the city tells NBC4 that they believe some of these criminals are part of organized crime rings, bigger than the city and even the county.
LA County Supervisors and the city have each dedicated $10,000 dollars to offer rewards for information that leads to arrests.
The Pasadena Police Department is asking for the public to remain vigilant and report any information regarding possible suspects, suspect vehicles, or surveillance video that could assist in identifying these criminals.
Anyone who witnesses any suspicious persons or vehicles or open electrical boxes in your area please contact the Pasadena Police Department using the information below.
