A guy at work had his heavy metal mail box stolen in broad daylight, same thing happened to his neighbor.
Check out this
article.. Here's an excerpt.
Copping copper
As metal prices rise, thieves are stripping pipes, wiring and profit from homes
12:00 AM CDT on Friday, June 16, 2006
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas homebuilder Jeff Dworkin has seen his share of job site thefts.
[Click image for a larger version] Photos by MICHAEL MULVEY/DMN
Photos by MICHAEL MULVEY/DMN
Builder Jeff Dworkin has had copper stolen from his work sites. This house is near White Rock Lake in Dallas.
But when thieves snatched the copper coolant lines for air conditioning at one of his homes under construction, he realized that he would have to take extra steps to guard his projects.
"I had never seen that done before because it wasn't that much copper," said Mr. Dworkin, who's been in the building business for almost 20 years.
"They actually had to climb into the attic and cut the supply line and pull it through the house."
With prices for copper building materials near a record, homebuilders are sometimes paying twice.
First they have to come up with the extra money to buy copper wiring and plumbing materials. Then they have to pay again, if thieves cart off the copper fixtures.
"With the copper prices increasing, our level of theft has risen dramatically," Mr. Dworkin said.
Copper prices have more than doubled in the last 12 months partly becauseof speculation in the metals markets. Although the price of the metal retreated earlier this week, costs of many copper building materials remain at all-time highs.