Results tagged “copper”

In mid-August, an under-construction Staten Island home was ransacked of its copper piping. Builder John Galarza said, "They did $16,000 [of damage] to collect a thousand to 12 hundred (dollars)," and offered a $5,000 reward. Another house was robbed of its copper (its builder suspects the thief knows "plumbing, because they did a clean job of taking it off"), and Galarza raised the reward to $10,000. Copper thefts aren't new--the Greenpoint Warehouse Terminal fire was allegedly started by a homeless copper thief--but now construction sites are being targeted more often. A third S.I. builder whose sites have been plundered said, "I wish [thieves] had touched one of the valves when it had 350 pounds of pressure on it. That would've been a nice little surprise."

Three men are under arrest today after a fourth man was found dead at the foot of a stairway in a Harlem building. 1010 WINS reports that when police responded to a call regarding a trespasser, they found a man hog-tied, unconscious and unresponsive. He was declared dead at the scene by emergency service workers.The dead man was identified as 33-year-old Shamod Murray. He was allegedly caught relieving himself in a hallway at 341 Lenox Ave. by the building's superintendent. The super, Roger MacFarland, was with two brothers, Dean and Stephan Fuller. All three men have been arraigned after a night of questioning.

Silver and gold are so last season, if you're a trendsetting criminal -- you know it's all about the copper these days. And where better to find it than in brownstone Brooklyn? The Brooklyn Paper reports:

At least four heists of the once-cheap electrical conductor have been pulled off in Brownstone Brooklyn since June, and a few others were foiled when the cops caught the bad guys red-handed before they could make off with their ill-gotten orange gold.

Continue reading "Copper Capers on the Rise in Brooklyn"