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E-mailPinching pennies, and other copper items
Copper cable
Steve Adams/Tribune-Review
Jill King Greenwood is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staff writer and can be reached at 412-321-2160 or via e-mail.
The owner of TNT Metals on 30th Street in the Strip District has a heavy-duty alarm system guarding his warehouse and this month began requiring visitors selling scrap metal to show identification.
He's got good reason. The price of copper has soared to historic highs, spurring a worldwide spate of copper thefts.
Thieves have hit dozens of Western Pennsylvania construction sites, power plants and trucks, and police are working with scrap metal dealers to identify those fencing stolen copper.
"I've had more detectives and police officers coming in recently than I've ever seen,'' Tibensky said. "They want me to keep an eye out for people that they know are doing this, and they also warn me to be careful. I have copper stored here, so I need to be cautious.''
Higher prices bring more sophisticated and daring heists.
A two-mile stretch of streetlights went dark in Tucson, Ariz., earlier this month after thieves made off with 8 miles of copper power cable that will cost about $250,000 to replace.
Thieves with spiked boots climbed power poles just outside Yakima, Wash., to cut down 600 feet of copper cable for historic trolleys that carry tourists through a hillside gap, closing the ride for the season.
Local thieves have been less subtle.
"They just kick in the door or break a window and go to the basement where the pipes are exposed, and it's easy to just rip them out,'' said Pittsburgh police Sgt. Kevin Gasiorowski, who heads a burglary squad investigating more than 30 reported copper thefts since November. "We're getting reports regularly. We've never been hit like this before, and it's a serious problem.''
Police in Westmoreland, Fayette, Armstrong, Butler, Beaver and Indiana counties also have investigated numerous copper thefts in the past year. Two rolls of insulated copper wire disappeared Thursday night or Friday morning from a residence under construction in Muddy Creek, Butler County, and state police are investigating.
"We see a lot of that,'' said state police Trooper Jeannie Martin in Greensburg. "Most of what we see is the copper being stolen from construction sites and homes.''
On Dec. 29, a large amount of copper wire was stolen from a storage trailer parked in the lot of a Sam's Club in Hempfield, Westmoreland County, and 700 feet of copper wire, valued at $3,000, was stolen from a construction trailer in Burrell Township, Indiana County, between Jan. 13-16.
Dennis Marcinizyn, 29, of Turtle Creek, and Daniel C. Dandries, 27, of Monroeville, are accused of stealing about $27,000 worth of copper wire last year from the old U.S. Steel Research Center in Penn Hills and then selling it to scrap dealers for $5,000 to $10,000, court records state. Both men are awaiting trial.
Pittsburgh robbery Detective Mike Pilyih said people he has arrested for stealing copper have told him they can make as much as $500 a day.
"Normally, if you break into someone's home and steal something like a DVD player and then pawn it, you're only getting pennies on the dollar, but with copper you're getting 100 percent of the profit," Pilyih said.
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