BY SHERIFFS JOHN KIRK, SCOTT HAZELETTE and JOHN HUNT
“Who’s it hurt?” thieves often ask.
The store doesn’t care,” they say. “Insurance pays off and it’s all OK in the end.”
This is shortsighted and wrong – especially when the crime is metal theft.
As the economy slowed, our counties began experiencing a rash of copper theft, a crime that endangers the community.
This get-paid-quick scheme typically involves thieves cutting down aerial communications lines, burning off the plastic insulation, and then selling the copper wire to unscrupulous scrap metal dealers.
While not attracting headlines like a murder or a drug deal in a schoolyard, copper thieves put lives at risk.
Destroying communications lines can keep people from reaching emergency services or patients from reaching their doctor.
Families previously served by those lines can no longer access the internet, whether for children to do homework, families to connect over social media or businesses to conduct commerce.
The immediate impact of lost dial tone or internet may last days, or even longer, as communication companies rebuild the lines.
But how long would it take a business to recover from lost online sales or a student to catch up after missing assignments and falling behind? How long for a farmer to rebuild when the fire department couldn’t be reached? How long for a family to recover when paramedics didn’t get the call?
For the past several months, our departments have been working hard to identify and arrest those who are hurting our communities and putting our friends, neighbors and families at risk. Working closely with the Kentucky State Police (KSP), and other local agencies, we have closed copper theft cases from many areas, including Tomahawk, Inez, Prestonsburg, Milo, Goose Creek, Blacklog, Coldwater, Boyd Branch, Thealka and Hagerhill.
We are proud of our investigators’ diligent work and appreciate the tremendous assistance of the KSP and other law enforcement partners. But we’ve just scratched the surface.
Copper theft – whether of communications cables, plumbing fixtures or catalytic converters – can happen anywhere, at any time. And the thieves know our deputies cannot be everywhere.
To stamp out copper theft, we need the community’s help. If you see something suspicious, please let us know. In Martin County, call 606-298-2828. In Floyd County, call 606-886-6711. In Johnson County, report suspicious activity to us at 606-789-3411 or message us on Facebook at Johnson County-Ky Sheriff’s Office.
Kentuckians have long prided ourselves on caring for our neighbors. We’ve looked out for each other through economic storms, winter storms, tornadoes and floods. Now we need to do it in the face of uncaring copper thieves.
These criminals, and those who aid them by receiving stolen property, should understand that we will investigate every case. We will pursue every lead. And we will bring charges.
We are asking the public to join with us in making our communities safer for all.