Small businesses facing a new threat—copper thieves tearing apart their AC units

American Thinker ^ | 06/26/2024 | Olivia Murray

[SeekAndFind]

As if Joe Biden’s America weren’t a bad enough environment for small business owners, it’s fixing to get even worse—not only do they have to consider a looming recession, inflation driving up overhead, smash and grabs (oftentimes with little to no recourse), a consumer with less to spend, sky-high insurance rates, and increasing taxation, now they get to wonder if copper thieves will strip their A/C units and put their small, family-owned enterprise out of business during their busiest month of the year.

Because, that’s exactly what happened to the owners of a local ice cream shop in Louisville, Kentucky. Here’s the story, from NBC-affiliate WAVE: 

Dixie Highway ice cream shop closed after AC unit torn apart in copper wire theft

Panchito’s Ice Cream is a family-owned business. Owner Jose Fabian and his wife opened their Dixie Highway location in December of last year and were looking forward to what would typically be their busiest month of the year.

Fabian learned about the theft when he got a call from one of his employees saying the AC at the shop didn’t seem to be working.

‘I contacted our AC maintenance company, they sent a technician out here, he went on the roof, and he was surprised to see what was up there,’ Fabian said. ‘He looked at the unit and saw that it was torn apart.’

Now, replacing the unit is a logistics nightmare—the AC unit was on the roof of the building, meaning a crane is required,

[SeekAndFind]

From CarbonCredits.com:

https://carboncredits.com/why-copper-prices-are-surging-and-what-to-expect/

[EXCERPT]

The surge in copper demand is driven by its pivotal role in renewable energy generation, electric vehicles, and grid infrastructure crucial for achieving net zero emissions. Market dynamics and global supply concerns have propelled copper prices upward, with top companies witnessing significant growth.

[END EXCERPT]

This tells me that that copper mines can’t even extract enough copper to keep up with the artificial demand to meet the needs of the “net zero” transition industry—no wonder thieves are stripping electric equipment like piranhas.

[Reno89519]

The other day when picking up my son I saw a neighboring garage open and on the ground was half-a-dozen inch-diameter copper cables about 4-6 feet long. In hindsight, what I’d expect to see if someone went to a Tesla charging station, cut, and walked away with the cables.

[SeekAndFind]

Here’s another item that are increasingly being stolen — THE CATALYTIC CONVERTERS IN CARS!

Catalytic converters are stolen for two reasons: money and ease of stealing. They are made with the precious metals platinum, palladium and rhodium, which skyrocketed in value due to supply chain issues.

These thefts are so common because the component is mounted beneath the vehicle, making it easily accessible to thieves. With the proper tools, thieves can remove a catalytic converter in less than two minutes and profit handsomely by reselling it. For the vehicle’s owner, replacing a stolen catalytic converter is a big hassle and potentially costs thousands of dollars.

[Scrambler Bob]

I might rat them out.

Or maybe not. That might help the EV situation that needs to die.

On the other hand, copper thieves might hit my catelitic converter, or any copper around my house, and I’d like to stop that.

[suthener]

It’s cute when some reporter finds out about something that’s been going on for years and assume it’s “new” because they they just found out. Where I live every time there’s a hurricane or exceptionally heavy rain some 20 something year old reporter will discover that when ant beds are flooded out the ants will cluster in a ball and float and think it’s an amazing discovery.

[Shady]

The junk dealers that accept this stolen metal should be held liable along with the perps. Get a small security camera and install it yourself. They work great, I have them all over.

[antidemoncrat]

How about passing a law making it illegal to sell surplus copper or catalytic converters with being registered with the proper authorities under penalty of having your business seized?

[Made In The USA]

Stealing copper should earn someone some lead to go with it.

[moovova]

And no 1099.

Maybe Trump will forgive the taxes on the thieve’s earnings.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

My mom had an attempted theft of one of her HVAC units. The dropped it on the lawn so they must’ve gotten spooked

[caver]

The copper thefts are driven by meth heads. And they have been doing this for at least ten years or more. We bought a foreclosed flip house about 10 years ago. By the time we got the deal closed, the AC unit was cut off from the house and stolen.

[Cold_Red_Steel]

I saw a recent article about thieves cutting the power cables off of EV Charging stations.

[Rlsau1]

Before I retired the company I worked for was located next to an A/C company/contractor. They had quite a stockpile of old a/c units which they had replaced. They had a constant problem with people scaling their fence and pilfering the copper from the old units. On one occasion there was a witness who was able to id the thief’s vehicle. The police were waiting at the scrap yard the next morning when he showed up. He was arrested, charged, booked, and bonded out. That night, someone in the area noticed a theft in the A/C company’s yard once again. It was the same guy!