Real Estate "For Sale" Signs An "Invitation" For Copper Thieves?

In York, Pennsylvania, WHP-TV Channel 21 reports:

• Realtors don't even want to hang up signs that say ”For Rent” or “For Sale” anymore. They say it's not just an invitation for tenants - but an invitation for thieves. Realtors Bob Williams and Charlotte Bergdoll are competitors when it comes to selling and renting homes in York: but they're working as allies now - fighting the metal burglars ruining their business.

• “First time they took copper pipe the second time they cut the electric out of it and the third time they cut the air conditioner pipe.” Williams has been a victim of metal thieves so many times - he doesn't want to buy any more homes in the city. “But you know for $200 worth of valuable copper it cost me $16,000 in property damage, it's not worth it.”

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• Bergdoll - who manages hundreds of city properties - believes more needs to be done to stop it. “These people are going in there and cutting gas lines there's gonna be an explosion and that may be what it takes before the city gets serious about this.”

For more, see Copper thefts bad for business in York.

For other stories on stolen copper, see Copper Thefts I and Copper Thefts II. copper metal theft yak