A Jacksonville man is facing multiple charges after police say he stole nearly $60,000 worth of copper from cell towers scattered across the city, including ground wires that were keeping equipment running during power outages. Jack Depetris, 45, was identified by detectives as the suspect caught on camera breaking into electrical sites and cell towers, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
The case began when specialized property-crimes detectives started investigating after a suspect was spotted on surveillance footage breaking into the sites, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office
. Depetris was arrested on charges that include burglary, grand theft with property damage over $1,000, and dealing in stolen property, per the same post from the agency, which named him as the man accused of taking nearly $60,000 in copper.
Among the items allegedly stolen were ground wires that had been powering equipment during an outage, the sheriff’s office said. Entering or tampering with sites like electrical substations and cell towers is itself illegal, and investigators have warned that copper-wire thefts carry real consequences beyond the missing metal — they can create danger for the community and trigger widespread service disruptions.
A City Already Battling a Copper Theft Wave
Depetris’s arrest lands amid a string of recent Jacksonville-area copper cases. In 2025, the sheriff’s office said it arrested several people suspected of belonging to a crime ring targeting copper inside internet lines, according to reporting from actionnewsjax.com. Investigators said their SCRAP team had been working since October to track down people accused of posing as utility workers to strip materials from the cables.
Surveillance video, witness statements and further investigation eventually led to four more arrests in that case, the outlet reported. Oddly, police said the alleged thieves in that operation were targeting fiber optic cables — even though those cables typically do not contain copper at all.
That case followed a separate, larger investigation in Northeast Florida. A call from AT&T to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in December 2024 prompted a probe into damaged cable wires and widespread service outages, actionnewsjax.com reported. Authorities there linked Archie Crook, James Bennett, Leslie Bennett and Corttney Kowalski to numerous copper thefts across Duval and Bradford counties, with damages totaling more than $400,000 across Northeast Florida. A related cable-theft ring dismantled by JSO resulted in nine suspects arrested across Jacksonville and Bradford County, tied to more than 15 fiber-optic line thefts, according to firstcoastnews.com.
Why Copper Is Suddenly Such a Target
The surge in thefts tracks a broader national trend. The value of copper has roughly doubled over the past year, a shift that has fueled a spike in wire theft nationwide, according to NPR. AT&T recorded more than 10,400 copper-wire theft incidents across the country last year, including roughly 4,300 in California alone, NPR reported, and the company said repairs from stolen copper cable can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The damage isn’t limited to phone lines. NPR’s reporting notes copper theft can also hit internet, electric and EV-charging infrastructure. Authorities in California described similar stakes after a sting that seized roughly four tons of copper and led to two arrests downtown, with NBC Los Angeles reporting the seized materials included an estimated 3,000 feet of telecommunications wire valued at roughly $102,000. Authorities there said such crimes have caused widespread power and telecommunications outages and raised serious public safety concerns.
Jacksonville residents could end up footing part of the bill even when they're not directly targeted. The sheriff’s office has warned that copper theft from fiber-optic cables can knock out high-speed internet access for customers, and that utility companies often pass the cost of replacing stolen cable on to ratepayers.
Similar cases have surfaced outside Florida as well. In Texas, a Texarkana man was hit with 10 felony counts tied to three break-ins at T-Mobile cell-tower sites in Miller County, according to Texarkana Today.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information about the Depetris case to call 904.630.0500.
