Crime prevention: Keeping your AC units safe from copper theft

LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) - With copper being one of the more valuable scrap metals it has become a target for people trying to make a quick buck.

Copper is usually taken from cars or AC units; however the profit made from sold copper is only a fraction of the damage costs owners are left with.

Sgt. Chris Blessing, the public information officer for the Lawton Police Department, said, “Those are very expensive items to purchase, and I want to say they do obtain quite a bit of copper to seize out of.”

The copper is then usually sold at a scrap yard. 7News talked about that process with the manager of Yarmuk Scrap Metal, Coby Brooksher.

“Everybody has to sign for what they brought in, then they have to get their picture taken before they get paid with the material their signing for saying they are the owner of the material,” said Brooksher.

He adds it’s difficult to keep up with the items that go in and out due to the number of people that come through.

“Yeah we have a lot of people call up here, and we do the best we can to lookout for it and whatnot, but it’s pretty tough.” said Brooksher. “We see between one-hundred and one-hundred twenty-five different tickets every day, but that’s why there’s cameras in place.”

According to LPD records, only three copper thefts have been reported so far this year, but the police think there are more, which is why they urge the public to report these crimes so proper action can be taken.

Brooksher said, “You know people call, and I understand they’re upset because they lost their stuff, but there’s not a whole lot we can do on that end besides provide information for the police.”

Sgt. Blessing goes on to give advice on what people can do to help prevent these thefts from happening.

“Try your best to deter crime. Again, lights, cameras, and some kind of physical object to deter that crime. Whether it be metal fencing, things of that nature, something like that,” said Sgt. Blessing.