Cartel people do this in Mexico, price of copper has gone up, and it is a thriving business.
People do it here too, mostly homeless and illegals. A few years ago when the price of copper was sky high, in our town we had people tearing fire department fixtures off of buildings, air conditioning units off of the roofs of businesses, and brass rain gutters from both businesses and homes. Lots of idiots got killed trying to tear copper wiring out of lamp posts, etc.
“You’ll never take me alive, Coppers!”