Posted on 07/11/2011 8:34:57 AM PDT by Morgana
PARKER COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - The Parker County Sheriff’s Department says thieves have stolen or damaged air conditioning units at seven different churches in the area, and that’s just in the last three months.
Most recently the Faith Presbyterian Church in Aledo was vandalized when a unit was pulled from the side of the building. The damage will cost the church at least $10,000.
Air conditioner thieves have also hit in Aledo, Azle, Millsap, Springtown and Weatherford.
Police say the a/c units are tempting to crooks because they contain large amounts of copper, which is sold on the scrap market for top dollar.
For many, the crimes seem more deplorable since they’re happening at churches. “[It’s an] an awful crime to desecrate a house of worship or steal from a church,” said Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler.
Anyone with information should contact the Parker County Sheriff’s Department at (817) 594-8845. Share this article
Happening here in NW FL, too.......................
It ain't just air conditioners. I had a friend who had a rental house that was was stripped of a lot of its pipes because they were copper. It cost a fortune to repair. Its anything they can get their hands on that has copper in it. This is a sign of societal break-down. We are moving back to an almost Medieval age where anything of value needs to be secured behind a wall or some other security system.
But they mostly get off scot free because there is little to go on in solving the case and the stolen copper is hard to trace.
Maybe the Muslims (pi$$ be upon them) have it right on the hand chopping bit.
Copper thieves were stealing the copper gutters off of our historic church in Central NJ. Unfortunately, they were doing thousands of dollars of damage to the slate roofing tiles at the same time. Somebody even went up to the top of our steeply pitched roof to steal flashing off the side of the bell tower.
All told the copper thieves wound up with maybe a couple of hundred dollars worth of metal. But it cost us at least $50,000 in repairs. Finally the vestry authorized a project to completely remove all copper gutters, flashing and trim from the building exterior. The historical preservationists were not happy with us, but when we showed them all the damage, they relented.
Only one way in/out of that area.
This is Florida down here and I have a sign up ,large and Hand written on the fence “there is nothing in here worth your life” skull and cross bones on our rear compound area, behind the work Shop.
“Thou shalt not steal”...
unless you can get a majority in Congress.
Someone else had the question -
is there any way to hook up 220 to these AC cages and still make it look like an accident?
“Thou shalt not steal”...unless you can get a majority in Congress.
Dead on! Nothing in the US constitution authorizes stealing from one group to give to another. Nothing.
With kudos to Walter E Williams.
It seems to me that the recyclers have a role in this. They can identify who is bringing in the copper and take it from there.
I’m so old I can remember when churches were open 24/7.
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