Copper Theft!

My bricklayers left on Thursday afternoon. I went over that night to pick up around the yard. Friday morning, my sheetrock guy went over to take care of the walls that will be soundproofed. On Saturday morning, my dad and I arrived to find that some of my copper had been stripped from the house!

They took the entire line of copper from the air handler in the attic to the unit in the backyard, and they got some plumbing pipe. Luckily, that's all. As far as plumbing, they took small pieces from the master bathroom and a good portion of the middle (guest) bathroom. In that room, they got all the copper out of the wall with the bathub faucet. They even broke one line off at the concrete slab...

I filed a police report (for all the good that will do). It's hard to tell whether it was kids, or one of my contractors or their workers, or just somebody looking for quick money to support a drug habit. They didn't take any tools, equipment, or other materials we had laying around. They didn't get to several copper lines that would have been easy to remove. They dropped a couple of pieces on the way out the front door, which may mean they left in a hurry.

So I spent Saturday boarding up the openings that have no doors in the front and installing my back door with a lock. One upside is that I can now say I have the keys to my new house! I also setup security lights inside. Of course, all anyone has to do to eliminate the light is unplug the extension cord from the temporary pole in the front yard, but it's something I guess. I also setup a battery-operated motion detector with a siren just inside the back door.

I would tend to think this was someone who had been keeping an eye on the place over time. They must have known that the brick-layers were packed and gone. And having the sheetrock providing new privacy from the street meant it was safer for them to work without being seen. Did they work in the middle of the night? If so, why did they seem to leave so suddenly? Why did they leave stuff that was so easy to get to? It makes me angry and stressed and also creeped out. Like someone is now watching me and my project without me knowing it.

The plumbers have already been there to replace all that was taken. They had to bust up the concrete where the line was broken at the slab. The HVAC guy has been by to assess his situation and plans to reinstall his line this week. And my electrician needs to look today at one line that they cut in order to get at the HVAC line.

And wouldn't you know that the electrical inspector FINALLY showed up this morning and couldn't get in because the place was locked up! I wonder how far that's going to set me back. He's supposed to try again tomorrow. Yeah, right.

All-in-all, I'm glad it wasn't much worse (Thank you, Lord!). It served as a wake-up call to get the place secured. The insurance company informs me it might not be worth my while to file a claim. I have a $2,000 deductible to begin with. If the replacement costs aren't much more than that, then filing a claim will cost me more in the long run because my insurance will go up. I'll lose my "no-claim" discount, and yada yada... Gee, I'm so glad I have insurance.


Here is the house with completed bricks after all the scaffolding was removed.



In this picture, you can see where they snapped off copper lines at the slab.



This is the master bath where they broke off small pieces.



Here, you can see the straps that used to hold the AC copper line.



And here are my first real walls of the house: the sheetrock is in place where they need to spray insulation on the other side.