Country Church Theft

[longtooth]

In our county there has been a recent RASH of country churches having their AC units "Worked On". (11 at present I believe) The ACs are usually not in high visibility areas, & many country churches have members experienced in servicing them. Theives are stealing the copper coils for salvage.
Big $$$s.
Heads up small country church members.
No thieves allowed signs are not worth the price they cost or the time it takes to put them up. Seems like thieves just wont obey "Keep Out" signs.

Our local PD is patrolling & leaving cards to let us know they are watching close.
Thank you to the Diboll PD.
LT

[HighVelocity]

Despicable.

[stevie_d_64]

It's getting to the point where you are going to have to lock up and somewhat enclose your outside equipment like this before they sprout legs and walk away...

Alarm systems, etc etc...

The question is going to be, is A/C equipment, copper wiring worth shooting someone to stop them???

Had a few examples lately, of thieves losing their lives over this risky endeavor...

What a shame...

[hi-power]

This church had A/C units behind a wrought-iron fence - which I assume was locked. The crackhead skittered away without the goodies when someone showed up early in the morning up to mow the grass, but not before damaging some of the units.

Wonder when they'll start hitting residential areas for the stuff?

Link. (Note: Fox4 is still Rebecca-free as of today!)

[Mithras61]

They've had quite a bit of this in the north-Houston area recently as well. I heard about it quite a bit because of the new housing developments out near where I live, but it has been a source of aggravation for many other businesses (non-builder types, that is) as well. I recall a Houston-area State rep. who was involved in a shooting over this very thing a little while ago. It made this board because the rep. opposed many of the new laws we supported this last session.

I suspect that as long as copper is relatively expensive and recycling facilities ask few or no questions, it will continue to be a problem.

[WarHawk-AVG]

http://www.canyonnews.com/content/2007/ ... ake-effect

• HB 1766 makes a state jail felony of the theft of wiring or cable that consists of at least 50 percent aluminum, bronze or copper and that has a value of less than $20,000.

A citizen can perform a Citizens Arrest at gunpoint if they witness a felony.

These laws were passed and are active Sept 1!
They were busy little beavers (thus I guess why there were voting on absent machines huh?)
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/Reports/Re ... ctivesept1

[ScubaSigGuy]

It's a special kind of low life that will steal form a church.

[longtooth]

It's a special kind of low life that will steal form a church.

Or go in & shoot people that are there to worship.
That is why we have a response plan.

[ghentry]

Well, not that it will make you feel any better, but things aren't any better in the "big city". Our church was broken into 4 times in 2 weeks.

The first incident, they broke out two windows and stole a bass amp. After the windows were replaced, they busted one of them out again and stole, yes, the replacement bass amp. A few nights later, they stole part of an a/c unit at the youth building.

A few nights later, our custodian that lives across the street from the church, woke up around 1 AM and couldn't go back to sleep. He decided to get a cup of coffee and sit in his car in the church parking lot. A few minutes later, a truck pulled into the youth parking lot and two guys loaded up the rest of the a/c unit. He called 911 and followed. The guys were caught a few minutes later thanks to HPD.

We found out a few days later that these guys started ratting each other and others in the little crime ring out. There were about 11 people that had been hitting churches.

So, we are relieved that these guys were busted, and hope the other will be too. However, we are also worried about retaliation, so the men of the church are taking shifts for the next 30 nights, watching the church.

[frankie_the_yankee]

The question is going to be, is A/C equipment, copper wiring worth shooting someone to stop them???

Of course it isn't.

But the A/C equipment is certainly worth me ordering the dirtbags to get the heck out of there immediately, while calling the cops.

And if at that point they come after me, well, I'm absolutely worth it.

[dukalmighty]

I might be reaching here but it mighta been jesus,i figure if he's got the name he might feel entitled

[age_ranger]

It's a special kind of low life that will steal form a church.

No kidding......that's pretty low. You have to wonder what scrap yard would be buying these coils from people. I take my scrap copper to the scrap yard and there's plenty of shady characters making big $$ off items that I really wonder where they came from. One day I had gone in and saw a guy with a truck FULL if grounding rods. Must have been a few thousand $$ in there. Quite a score............another guy drove up in a nice Caddy with a trunk full of copper plates. Looked like those huge bars they use for electrical work. Kind of odd, but who really knows? None if it is marked and it's untraceable.

[boomerang]

Had a few examples lately, of thieves losing their lives over this risky endeavor...

These days it seems like that's the most effective way to lower the crime rate.

[Venus Pax]

It's a special kind of low life that will steal form a church.

Our former church used to have rockers near the front door for people do sit in and visit between services. People kept stealing them.

The pastor, once a ringed-tail tooter before he accepted Christ, said that twenty years ago, even the lowest of thieves wouldn't stoop to stealing from a church. Now, churches have to lock everything down. It's a shame, really.

Our current church has a fence around the perimeter of the property, and closes and locks the gates when no one is there. So far, they haven't had any trouble.

[ELB]

"ring-tailed tooter?"

elb