Suspected Copper Thieves Go Underground In Crown Heights

by CrownHeights.info

Precious metals are all the rage right now, and copper wire is a great place to get some.

For copper wire thieves, abandoned buildings, construction sites, and exposed wiring are their well-known hunting grounds across New York City, but did you know that they are now treasure hunting below ground?

Crown Heights Shomrim recieved information regarding a group of suspicious individuals entering a manhole in Crown Heights Monday night, and as far as the witness could tell, they were still in there.

Shomrim volunteers were able to confirm the shocking incident, even getting witness video of the incident, and details on the car the group used to arrive in Crown Heights before burrowing underground.

The deeper investigation of what the group was doing was even more astounding.

One of the locations where copper wire can be found in abundance in NYC is the under-road utility tunnels that run throughout the streets of the city. Millions of feet of copper wire line these tunnels, and all these thieves need to do is hop into a manhole, strip all they can hold, and arrange a pickup at another manhole location. For the thieves, the payoff is worth it.

Have a pound of old copper wire? Scrap yards will pay between $1.00 and $4.00 per pound. And if you steal it from the unguarded tunnels of NYC instead of earning it another way, it doesn’t cost you much money to get it at all.

In November of last year, a scrap metal swindler, identified as 55-year-old Efrain Velez, was blamed for the three-day stop in service of a Bronx Subway station after stripping copper wires straight off the train tracks at the 149th Street Grand Concourse station. These wires bring a few dollars a pound, but thousands of dollars in repairs.

The alleged Crown Heights copper thieves got away, most likely with a large amount of copper loot at the taxpayer’s expense.