CENTRAL TEXAS (KXXV) — As Temple police continue to investigate a reported theft of copper electrical wire valued at around $300K — police tell 25 News they've had 36 reported incidents of copper thefts since January, with the most common incidents happening at new home construction sites.
25 News' Bobby Poitevint took a broader look at copper thefts across our area and spoke to a local builder and developer.
Steve Sorrells is President of Sorrells and Co. — a Central Texas home builder and developer.
Sorrells says they have built hundreds of homes in the area.
“When I got your call today, I did a text round of a bunch of my builder friends and my electricians, see what they're experiencing in and around the area," he said.
"So far, knock on wood, we’re blessed we don’t have anything real recent as far as copper thefts go."
Sorrells said over their 26 years, they’ve had maybe a dozen thefts, and added there’s factors that can cause copper thefts to rise including drug-related issues.
"Over our 26 years or so we see a seasonally to it — there’s times where you can see precious metals are going up in costs and you’ll start seeing it pop-up there," he said.
"You’ll also see increase in thefts depending on how the economy is doing when people are more out of work and that sort of thing — turning to trouble."
He says technology is playing a role in prevention and helping catch criminals.
Something that he’s experienced first hand — it even helped catch a thief — a neighbor that he says took copper from one of his job sites.
“There’s fairly simple camera systems that we’re able to install on all of our job sites — it’s the Reolink system," Sorrells said.
"I can look at it on my cell phone and pull it up and take attendance on what’s there and who’s there."
Aside from Temple Police Department, we’ve also reached out to the Waco and Killeen Police Departments to get the number of copper thefts reported to them over recent months.
