A suspected copper wire thief in Irvine ran after an officer tried to stop him Monday near railroad tracks. The Irvine Police Department said he was caught hiding in a storm drain.
The suspect was caught hiding in a storm drain, according to the Irvine Police Department.
A separate account from New Santa Ana places the encounter along railroad tracks near San Diego Creek, where officers first stopped a man walking on the tracks. When he ran, the outlet reports, an officer managed to catch up and arrest him for trespassing on railroad property and resisting arrest.
Replica Gun and Pepper Spray Found in Backpack
According to the same report, officers searching the suspect's backpack found a replica firearm and a canister of pepper spray. The report also notes that officers spotted stripped copper wiring near the tracks, which investigators believed may have come from an earlier theft in the area.
Separately, Irvine recently lost more than $40,000 worth of copper wire stolen along Peters Canyon Trail, a case that underscores how costly these thefts have become for local infrastructure.
A Growing Problem Across California
Copper theft has become an increasingly expensive headache well beyond Irvine. Thieves have targeted utility lines, telecommunications infrastructure, streetlights, electric-vehicle charging stations and construction sites across the state, according to KTLA. In one case the station covered, Ventura County investigators arrested 43-year-old North Hills resident Marvin Moises Colindres-Perez after thefts between March and July caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and disrupted phone, internet and emergency communication lines. Investigators said they recovered evidence linking him to multiple copper wire thefts in that county.
The California Department of Justice has flagged the issue at a statewide level too. Officials with the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General have said thieves often strip encased copper cables, cut them into short lengths, and burn off the sheathing to get at the raw copper inside — a method that can leave communities in the dark when it hits utility lines.
Locally, the Irvine Police Department has described copper theft as a growing concern in the city, one that affects public safety, drives up repair costs and has left some neighborhoods without power for street lighting. Under California law, grand theft is defined broadly as theft committed under any of several specified circumstances, per California Legislative Information.
