Dive Brief:
- As Wake County, N.C. grows rapidly— hitting a statistically predicted million residents last week— thefts have been happening regularly for both construction materials and appliances that builders put in homes under construction.
- This week, police chased and arrested a 22-year-old homeless man they said was trying to get away with about $1,000 worth of copper from the building being renovated to be the new town police station in the suburban town of Garner.
- They charged the man with attempted felony larceny, and recovered the copper after the daytime effort.
Dive Insight:
The recycling value of metal has made construction-site theft an ongoing problem, with crooks taking copper pipe, wire, air-conditioning coils, and other materials. An estimate published in 2012 by Construction Data Company in 2012 put the cost of stolen materials and equipment at or over $1 billion annually.