Incidents of theft rise hand in hand with copper's value

CHESAPEAKE

There's a copper rush in Hampton Roads.

The record price of the metal has thieves stripping copper from communication towers, utility substations, railways, construction sites, scrap yards and even cemeteries. A number of local people are facing jail time for their copper crimes.

In one of the latest cases, a 19-year-old Portsmouth man will serve six months in jail for repeatedly stealing copper last year from a Dominion Virginia Power substation in Chesapeake. Circuit Judge Bruce H. Kushner sentenced David J. Gaskill on Thursday for convictions of grand larceny,

damaging property and conspiracy.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Kurt Gilchrist said Gaskill and three juveniles caused thousands of dollars in damage when they stole copper wiring from the substation and took it home.

"They not only went once to steal property, they went twice," Gilchrist said in court.

Gaskill, represented by Senior Assistant Public Defender David Jones, was ordered to repay the power company $10,848. His younger accomplices were prosecuted in Chesapeake Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

"What has happened with the copper theft is something that is almost of epidemic proportions nationwide," said Chuck Penn, a Dominion Virginia Power spokesman.

"We've had a number of break-ins throughout our service area, so we're not immune," Penn said. "But we've been working in concert with local law enforcement to apprehend and prosecute people who break into our facilities."

"There will be no mercy for those caught and we will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law," Penn said.

Earlier this week, a 32-year-old Suffolk man pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing copper from cell phone towers. Keith Arlan Pickens faces as much as 10 years in prison for the malicious destruction of communication lines when he is sentenced in June.

Pickens and four others admitted stealing copper grounding bars and copper wiring from 130 cellular towers across Virginia and North Carolina.

Copper theft is nothing new, said Bob Garino, director of commodities for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. in Washington. For years, as the price has skyrocketed, so has the desire of thieves to turn the metal into quick cash.

Copper reached a high of $3.87 a pound on the market Thursday, Garino said. In 2002, it sold for an average of 72 cents a pound.

It is difficult to put a price on copper coming into scrap yards, Garino said. It often depends on the form in which it is brought in and the quality, he said.

The ISRI is a trade association representing more than 1,350 private companies that broker, process and industrialize consumer scrap commodities. Bruce Savage, president of communications at ISRI, said the association's dealers work closely with law enforcement and require scrap metal sellers to produce identification and records.

"They try to get as much information as they can on a transaction," Savage said.

At least 50 times last year, employees at Gutterman Iron & Metal Corp. were called into court to testify against suspected metal thieves, said Paul Calcagni of Gutterman Iron & Metal, which has scrap operations in Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

"We're the only link to catching these people," Calcagni said. "Without us, nobody would get caught."

Gaskill and his accomplices were caught in March 2007 when a neighbor noticed them stripping the insulation from the stolen Dominion Virginia Power copper.

Penn, Dominion's spokesman, said such actions disrupt the power company's ability to provide reliable service to customers. They also can be deadly.

"It's really dangerous to be fooling around in substations with that kind of voltage," Penn said.

"Depending on what facilities they break into, they're subject to federal prosecution because some of our facilities are considered critical components to our nation's security or critical infrastructures as it relates to the Department of Homeland Security."

John Hopkins, (757) 222-5221, john.hopkins@pilotonline.com