Copper theft has become a growing problem and costly issue for facility managers. The article discusses how the rising price of copper has led to an increase in copper being stolen from vacant and occupied buildings. While thieves may get a few hundred dollars for the scrap copper, it often costs facilities tens of thousands of dollars or more to repair the damage and replace stolen equipment like HVAC systems. The article provides examples of schools, businesses, and hospitals that have been targeted and the large costs incurred to address the theft. It also describes how some facilities are finding affordable video alarm solutions to be effective at detecting thieves and notifying police in real-time, helping to lower repair costs and increase arrests.

1. ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Selecting A Water
Treatment Provider
page 16
New Lighting Regulations
page 20
Copper Theft A Costly Crime
page 38

2. fm issue
PHOTOS: THINKSTOCK; DESIGN: MEGAN KNIGHT, GROUP C ART DIRECTOR
F
acilities management (FM) is management pays to rectify what vandals
afflicted with a growing infec- leave behind. The cost to repair a rooftop
By Keith Jentoft
tion eating at the wiring, suck- HVAC system hit by copper thieves for
ing at the plumbing, rupturing $400 of cooling coils often is more than
the HVAC, and suppressing one hundred times the value of the copper.
fire control. The plague of copper theft The horror stories are everywhere—on
is a facilities cancer destroying value and television news, radio reports, and the
killing property—an epidemic in need of local papers. Supermarkets, hospitals, and
a cure. schools are shut down because thieves
Over the past five years copper prices targeted their HVAC systems. Vacant
have skyrocketed. While there was brief offices and apartments are stripped of
A few hundred dollars relief during the market crash, prices their wiring and left with a patchwork of
have again surged, driving the epidemic holes in the drywall used to pull wiring
of copper theft cancer. from the studs. Sprinkler valves and fit-
worth of material often tings are disappearing, threatening safety
Deceptive Price Tags and building code compliance.
In the past few years, rising
costs several thousands
commodities prices created new
challenges for facility managers
more to replace. (fms) and placed building infra-
structure under new attacks. Most
shocking to those who have not
PHOTO: GOOGLE IMAGES
lived through an episode are the
unbelievable repair costs relative
to the value of the copper stolen.
It would be difficult to exagger-
ate the gap between the scrap
Copper theft not only causes downtime related to affected equipment,
prices thieves collect and what but it is also quite costly to make necessary repairs and replacements.
38 A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 w w w. To d a y s F a c i l i t y M a n a g e r. c o m

3. “Do Not Enter” Does Not Matter In January of this year, Jefferson Oklahoma City had 18 rooftop HVAC
In the past, the intrinsic value of County Public Schools near Louisville, units stolen from the roof of his busi-
wiring, plumbing, roofing, and HVAC KY had copper gutters taken from 14 ness. He estimated the cost to repair the
didn’t merit the labor required to steal it schools. The local news, WLKY, reported damage at between $130,000 and
for scrap. Not anymore. Older buildings the following: “The Jefferson County $140,000 while the value for the scrap
are especially vulnerable, as they are a Public Schools executive director of facil- aluminum and copper was about $9,000.
virtual mine of copper pipes, copper ities, Michael Mulheirn, said copper gut- Obviously, this doesn’t consider the cost
wires, and copper gutters/flashing; all ters and copper flashing started disap- of downtime.
built when copper cost pennies a pound pearing from school rooftops two months The large cooling systems in super-
and needed no protection. ago. ‘The worse thing that can happen is markets and hospitals are prime targets.
Spools of copper wire, new boilers, obviously we can get water into the A recent incident in California forced a
emergency generators, or uninstalled cool- building,’ said Mulheirn. ‘It can also, if large supermarket to close while new
ing systems have always needed protec- you’re not careful, it can get into the roof- cooling units were installed and the roof
tion during construction. Once they were ing system and insulation underneath, was repaired. The cost of the actual
installed, however, nobody worried about and that’s when you can eventually end repairs was $250,000, but the cost of
them. This has changed, and proactive up with indoor air quality problems.’ downtime and spoilage was even greater.
fms are exploring ways to protect what is “WLKY called several scrap yards Even without food freezers to worry
theirs and avoid the catastrophic costs around town to find out how much the about, in many parts of the country in the
associated with repairing copper theft. thieves are getting for the stolen copper. Sunbelt, losing air conditioning means
The trouble is that normal burglary The average was about $2.85 per pound, closing the building until it is repaired.
involves thieves stealing valuables con- but only about $1.30 if it has tar on it.
tained in a building. With copper theft Mulheirn said the cost to fix the damage Affordable Solutions
crooks steal the “building” itself, often that’s been done at all 14 schools will be Some fms are finding a solution to
without even entering the facility. $100,000.” copper theft with video alarms designed
Traditional intrusion alarm systems Again, the cost to repair is orders of for use outdoors. Video alarms are dif-
are not designed to prevent the theft of magnitude more than the value of the ferent from traditional surveillance sys-
gutters or HVAC units. The costs can be scrap as seen when thieves ransack tems and CCTV cameras that already
very high. rooftop HVAC systems. Ted Davis of are present in many facilities.
w w w. To d a y s F a c i l i t y M a n a g e r. c o m T F M 39

4. fm issue
Surveillance systems typically use
DVRs to record video from the surveil-
PHOTO: RSI VIDEO TECHNOLOGIES, INC
lance cameras continuously for later
review in the event of a problem. As any
police officer will affirm, outdoor thieves
are rarely identified with surveillance
video recordings. The obvious flaw with
recorded video is that by the time the
problem is discovered, the crooks are
long gone, and all that is left is an image Motion viewing products, an integration of detector and
camera, can be an effective tool to monitor activities on
of the back of their sweatshirt and the vacant facility sites. These are mounted in strategic
vantage points and can be repositioned as needed.
top of their baseball cap.
Video alarm systems are designed to money to install wires and cameras in a
detect intruders and notify police imme- building that is going to be renovated or
PHOTO: GOOGLE IMAGES
diately, sending a 10 second video clip sold (which is often a losing proposition
of what caused the alarm to a monitor- to be avoided).
ing station for review and police dis- Cordless/wireless video alarm systems
patch. This means police respond to a change the game and are an affordable
crime in progress and can catch the option to protect vacant property against Video alarm systems take traditional surveillance sys-
tems one step further. When an intruder is detected, a
crooks in the act. copper theft. Aside from the fact that video alarm system can notify police and send a video
clip to inform responders about what has occurred.
One significant benefit of this they still catch criminals in the act, these
approach is that police give priority systems install instantly and can be dle of affordability. A team of four peo-
response to video alarms. They support moved as needed. ple installed 30 systems in six days.
video alarms because they make more One example of how this can be These “5% solutions” actually per-
arrests. Because video alarm systems implemented is a cordless motion formed better than the $100,000 sys-
confirm the presence of an intruder, fms viewer, which consists of a relatively tems in terms of arrests. In their first
aren’t saddled with increasing fines for small (about the size of a coffee cup) month of operation, September 2009,
false alarms, and police arrest the perpe- integrated detector/camera. This type of the systems assisted the police in making
trators. equipment can be placed on a tripod or over 45 arrests. In the months following
In the May 2010 issue of Sheriff mag- attached to a surface with Velcro or the total has grown to over 90.
azine, Larry Amerson, the incoming magnetic mounts, so they can be recon- Detroit has demonstrated that
president of the National Sheriffs’ Asso- figured as needed or moved when the success is possible on a budget. Law
ciation stated, “We believe that the facility is sold. enforcement officials strongly support
delivery of a video of the specific event the solution, and they are publicizing
that triggered the alarm is a tremendous Case Study: Detroit Schools the arrests to send a message to the
improvement in alarm technology that One example of how effective video surrounding community: “Don’t steal
will lead to a reduction in false alarms, alarms can be happened recently in the here, or we will catch you and prosecute
saving valuable budget dollars.” Detroit Public Schools. Detroit closed to the fullest extent of the law.”
many schools in 2009; some were sched- Fortunately, with the help of video
Vacant, But Not Empty uled for remodeling and others were alarm technology, vacant and occupied
Vacant property presents a special set being readied for sale. buildings can now be secured on budget
of problems. Protecting vacant property A true surveillance system with wired and protected from the cancer of copper
is a growing issue as copper theft threat- CCTV cameras would have cost theft without breaking the bank.
ens the integrity of the buildings them- $100,000 per site and required several
selves. Once the wiring or sprinkler sys- days to install. This was impossible Jentoft (kjentoft@videofied.com) is president of
tems have been damaged, everything given the financial challenges of the White Bear Lake, MN-based RSI Video Technologies.
To see videos of actual copper theft arrests, visit
must be brought back up to code before Detroit school system.
www.apprehensions.videofied.com.
anything can be done with the property. Ultimately, Detroit opted to protect Read an online article from TFM’s Facility-
Vacant property often means that 30 buildings using cordless/wireless Blog that discusses copper theft instances and what
power, broadband, and/or phone is video security provided by a local inte- some officials have done about it: http://todaysfa-
cilitymanager.com/facilityblog/2008/12/web-
unavailable. Most importantly, securing grator. These systems cost 5% of the sur- exclusive-fbi-report-indicates-copper-thefts-still-
vacant property often means investing veillance systems and overcame the hur- threaten-us-critical-infrastructure.html.
40 A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 w w w. To d a y s F a c i l i t y M a n a g e r. c o m
Reprinted with permission from Today’s Facility Manager August 2010 issue. Copyright © 2010 Group C Media, Inc. All rights reserved.