Copper thieves suck

Is it trendy to steal copper? Maybe. And that’s not a good thing, because if a copper thief steals valuable wire from your neighborhood streetlight, it could take up to a year for the city to get it back up and running.

But this is about to change. Now—on the heels of rampant copper jacking in the city—the city manager has authorized spending an extra $400,000 over the next 90 days to get up to date with a huge backlog of out-of-commission streetlights.

A city report notes that the price of salvaged copper has more than doubled over the past few years, from approximately $1.80 a pound in 2008 to $3.30 today.

The department of transportation also estimates that some 224 city neighborhoods are blacked out due to copper theft. (N.M.)