TULSA — Copper theft is back in the news this week after it caused some Tulsans to be without power on Tuesday.
Thieves steal copper wiring from all different kinds of sites and sell it for scrap.
2 News Oklahoma spoke with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, and we’re told it’s a dangerous practice that yields a small amount of money for the thieves.
"It causes huge damage, not only to businesses and homeowners, but it also puts people’s lives in jeopardy too," Casey Roebuck with TCSO said.
Copper theft is a problem in Green Country.
Roebuck says they deal with copper thieves several times a week.
"It’s just something that we are constantly facing, but as long as there’s a market for these precious metals, this is something that we’re going to be contending with throughout the county," Roebuck said.
Thieves steal copper from different places — home construction sites, businesses, and electrical substations.
Roebuck even says they’ve dealt with a case at a sod farm in Bixby.
All the while, stealing copper is a dangerous crime.
"[They're] taking copper out of live electrical equipment, and we have had a suspect even get injured doing this," Roebuck said.
On Tuesday afternoon, PSO had to cut off power to some customers to make repairs for a copper theft incident. In a voicemail, they said the outage would only be brief, but we heard from some people who were offline for several hours. That same voicemail threatened legal action and offered a hefty reward for information leading to the thieves.
"PSO prosecutes copper thieves to the fullest extent of the law and offers a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction," the voicemail said.
A spokesman for PSO did not want to be interviewed but sent a statement to 2 News Oklahoma.
"PSO understands how Tuesday’s emergency outage disrupted the lives of our customers, and we appreciate and thank them for their patience. Copper theft is illegal and extremely dangerous. This is an ongoing investigation, and PSO cooperates with police and prosecutors
fully in copper theft investigations and offers a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to arrests and convictions of copper thieves. PSO’s Copper Theft Hotline is 888-747-5845."
PSO understands how Tuesday’s emergency outage disrupted the lives of our customers, and we appreciate and thank them for their patience.
Tuesday’s incident was just the latest case. Roebuck called the string of thefts an “epidemic”
"The best that we can do is really focus our enforcement in the areas where we know it’s happening," Roebuck said, "And sometimes we get a couple of wins, we make some arrests, but unfortunately, there’s someone waiting to take that thief’s place as soon as they get put behind bars."
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