Two masked, gloved men have broken into the same data center construction site in Culpeper County three separate times since late September, cutting fences and padlocks to make off with copper piping and power tools, according to investigators. Culpeper County Sheriff Timothy Chilton says the suspects appear to be the same pair each time, and they seem to know exactly how to get in and out undetected.
Three Break-Ins, One Site, One Month
According to WUSA9, the Culpeper County Sheriff's Office is investigating three thefts at the construction site in the Germanna Highway area, all occurring between roughly 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. The first break-in happened overnight between September 22 and 23, when the suspects cut a padlock on the front gate and took copper piping from locked storage areas. Investigators believe the pair used at least one large vehicle, or possibly multiple vehicles, to haul away the stolen material.
The men returned overnight between October 18 and 19, this time cutting through the perimeter fence on the east side of the property and slicing padlocks off storage areas to grab a large number of power tools. Security cameras captured two masked and gloved male suspects during that incident, per the same WUSA9 report. A third theft followed just days later, overnight between October 21 and 22, with recently installed cameras capturing the suspects again. Officials say the two appear to be the same people seen during the October 18-19 break-in, and investigators believe they entered through the same cut in the fence each time, apparently wearing the same clothing throughout.
Copper Losses Climb Past $200,000
Star-Exponent reporting on the case notes authorities are looking for two men they say stole a large amount of copper piping and other items in the string of thefts. That outlet's account also references a sheriff's office release describing the stolen copper as worth around $200,000, though that specific figure appears only in a limited citation and has not been independently confirmed elsewhere.
“The same two people returned three times in a month,” Sheriff Chilton said, according to the WUSA9 account, adding that whoever is responsible clearly knows how to enter and leave the property. He said someone in the community may recognize the suspects or their distinctive clothing, and he's asking anyone who has been offered copper or a large lot of power tools at an unusually low price to get in touch with his office.
Part of a Wider Pattern Around Data Centers
The Culpeper thefts land amid a broader wave of copper and equipment theft tied to the data center construction boom reshaping parts of Virginia. In Loudoun County, three men were arrested and charged with grand larceny after allegedly stealing copper wire from a data center construction site in Sterling, according to WJLA. Investigators in that case said they spotted a U-Haul and conducted a traffic stop, finding the copper wire inside the truck.
The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office separately investigated thefts of copper piping and wire worth about $105,000 from data centers scattered across Ashburn, the Dulles area, Loudoun Valley Estates and Sterling, the Loudoun Times-Mirror reported, including about $20,000 in copper wire taken from a Sabey Data Centers facility in Ashburn on April 18. Culpeper County itself is in the middle of a data-center expansion, with Amazon, EdgeCore and DataBank all planning large-scale projects in the county, per Data Center Dynamics.
Why Copper Keeps Disappearing
Copper theft has been described as a growing problem well beyond Culpeper. Police and metal recyclers in Southwest Virginia say copper remains an easy target because it's simple to remove and simple to sell, according to a report from wsls.com that also detailed a vacant Roanoke City home where water ran under the house for days after thieves stripped out the copper pipes. A Virginia Tech computer science professor told WJLA that construction sites like the one in Culpeper need layered security, noting that law enforcement is just one piece and that alarms and other protective measures matter too.
The problem extends to higher-value equipment as well. Cargo-theft reporting from WIRED identifies copper alongside enterprise-grade computer and networking gear as some of the most commonly stolen goods nationally, even as the overall number of reported thefts fell 26 percent year over year last quarter while the value of goods taken more than doubled. That report also cited a Southern California seizure of $4 million in allegedly stolen cargo, including data-center cooling equipment, and a separate California Highway Patrol recovery of more than $2.2 million in merchandise, including $550,000 worth of server switches.
For now, the Culpeper investigation remains open, and Sheriff Chilton is leaning on the public for leads. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Culpeper County Sheriff's Office at 540-727-7520 or [email protected].
