Commerce City police are asking the public to help identify suspects in a copper-wire theft involving public utility infrastructure. Investigators say dash-camera footage captured images of a suspect, and they're hoping someone recognizes him.
Copper-Wire Theft Investigation
The department is asking residents to help identify the suspects.
Police are asking anyone with information to come forward.
Part of a Bigger Copper Problem
This isn't an isolated headache for Commerce City. Police told CBS Colorado the department has seen a rise in copper-wire theft citywide since the start of the year, with the department saying, “We've been experiencing an uptick in copper wire theft since the first of the year,” according to a CBS Colorado report. In a separate case cited by the outlet, officers arrested three people accused of stripping copper wiring from utility and light poles, with police saying the group caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage.
Other recent cases in the area point to just how destructive and expensive these thefts can get. A CBS Colorado report on earlier copper thefts in Commerce City described 19 CenturyLink-owned electrical boxes that were tampered with and stripped of their copper wiring one April, a hit the utility estimated at roughly $25,000 in damage. The same report noted that two copper backflow preventer systems at an apartment complex were stripped less than three weeks apart.
Copper theft has also turned up outside city limits. According to KDVR, Weld County deputies recovered a little more than $4,000 worth of copper wire tied to a burglary in which a female suspect allegedly entered a business and stole the material, with investigators finding a large cut in a nearby fence. For now, the suspect in the Brighton Boulevard case remains unidentified, and Commerce City police are counting on the public and that dash-cam footage to change that.
