Copper thieves strike co-op again
They’re back at it again.
Copper thieves ripped off Socorro Electric Copperative, stripping ground wire from poles in the Tierra Grande area in southern Valencia County.
In response, the co-op is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thieves, just like it did a year ago when vandals stripped ground wire from about 200 poles in the same area.
The latest incident occurred Jan. 24, and involved about 100 poles along N.M. 47, according to David Montoya, Socorro Electric’s line superintendent.
“We got a call from the El Paso Pumping station that thieves pulled out a meter. It looked like it was somebody that knew what they were doing, because they took the wire out of the bottom part of the meter,” he said, adding that the wire above the meter was “hot.”
When Montoya went to the station to fix the meter, it was discovered that ground wire was missing from power poles in the area.
Montoya said the damage to the co-op amounted to several thousands of dollars.
One year and one week prior to the incident, vandals likely used a pickup truck to help rip wire off poles in Tierra Grande, costing the co-op an estimated $50,000 to repair the damage and replace the wire.
This time, Montoya said roughly 8-feet of wire was taken from the bottom of each pole, indicating the thief probably used a bolt cutter while standing on the ground.
Anyone with information on the case can contact either the Valencia County Sheriff’s Department at 505-866-2400 or the Socorro County Sheriff at 575-835-0940.
A Persistent Problem
Copper theft has been an ongoing problem for the co-op, and one reason it has begun using copper-clad wire, which has the same basic characteristics of copper but is less expensive and is of much less value to thieves who sell the wire to scrap yards.
The price of copper has shot up in recent years and currently goes for about $4.50 per pound.
A state law implemented last year puts in place a process where metal dealers are required to verify the identities of those they buy from and to maintain written records of purchases.
In February 2009, copper thieves caused a power outage that affected people in Veguita, La Joya and Contreras communities in northern Socorro County.
Montoya said then the thieves yanked wire from poles in the area using nylon rope tied to a vehicle. In the process of doing so, some copper wire fell atop a phase wire, which led to an outage that lasted about three hours.
That was the third time in three months the co-op had been struck by vandals. The two other incidents occurred near San Antonio, N.M., south of Socorro. Someone used a high-powered rifle to shoot copper down from a half mile of line and insulators. That same day co-op crews found about three miles of line had been impaired by vandals who cut the copper grounds, causing about $10,000 in damage.
Shorty thereafter, in what was believed to be an unrelated incident, more damage was discovered that required repair.
A few months prior to that, about 500 pounds of copper was stolen from the co-op’s maintenance yard in Socorro. The loss then was estimated to be between $6,000 and $7,000. And a smaller amount of copper was taken from another maintenance area across the street a few months before that.
Contact T.S. Last