In only four months, local businessman Glenn Browder was down 10 air conditioning units and out tens of thousands of dollars.

The thieves started small, but got bolder, he said.

The first time, the perpetrators took one unit. But they were back two days later, stealing two more. Three weeks later, six went missing.

Glenn Browder installed cages around air conditioners at his office complex at Lake Air Drive and Sanger Avenue after several were stolen recently.
Rod Aydelotte / Waco Tribune-Herald

“It’s like lightning striking twice,” Browder said.

Even after he hired a contractor to install heavy metal cages around the new units, securing them with padlocks, a 10th air conditioner was taken early last week. Browder found the lock cut and the cage upside down.

He interpreted it as a statement from the thieves: “We’ll get them if we want them.”

More business owners and residents are going to greater extremes to defend their air conditioning units, according to police and air conditioner repairmen.

And more people are locking down their units in cages with locks, installing additional lighting and even cameras to ward off potential thieves. Others are strapping the units to the roofs to make them less accessible.

It’s a story familiar to attorney Danny Wash, who owns buildings in Sanger Office Park, 6600 Sanger Ave.

Five air conditioning units were stolen in January, he said. He immediately started chaining them down, but two more were taken in April after the chains were cut.

Wash purchased cages for all the units, then installed lights.

Police think Wash’s damages totaled between $8,000 and $10,000.

Authorities later discovered that Wash’s buildings were targeted by 21-year-old Kristopher Harold, who confessed to at least 49 air conditioner thefts in Waco, according to court documents.

The thefts amounted to about $178,000 in damage, according to police, and led to the arrests of four other men: 20-year-old Daryl Curl, 20-year-old Julius Guillory, 20-year-old Byron Booker and 33-year-old Francisco Javier Flores.

Each has been charged with at least one count of theft.

The appeal

Officials said the high price of scrap metal has led to an increase in thefts, Waco police spokesman Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said.

And according to national reports, the U.S. has seen record-high prices in the past year for copper.

“It’s one of those things that has been going on for a long time, but now that copper prices have really spiked, it’s become much more lucrative,” he said.

Prices at Waco’s two major scrap metal recyclers ranged from $3.29 to $3.45 per pound of copper Friday.

Police think the men charged in the recent spate of thefts were making a profit of about $140 per air conditioner by reselling the parts to a local metal recycling company.

It’s a crime that thieves think can be done fairly quickly, with a large payout compared to the effort required, Swanton said.

But what many thieves don’t realize is that stealing an air conditioner unit amounts to a theft of more than $1,500 but less than $20,000 — making it a third-degree state jail felony, not a misdemeanor, Swanton said.

That’s because it can cost anywhere between $2,000 and $5,000 to replace the units, according to business owners and air conditioning repairmen.

Air conditioning theft also can be dangerous, he said.

In 2007, a man was killed in Bellmead while attempting to salvage copper wires from an electrical substation.

He was electrocuted with about 65,000 volts of electricity, according to earlier reports.

And businesses aren’t the only places targeted by thieves. Churches also are a popular hunting ground.

The First Assembly of God, 6701 Bosque Blvd., was one of the spots police allege was targeted by Harold and Curl.

The church was the victim of air conditioning thefts twice in the past six months, Pastor Doug Schafer said.

The first theft, reported Oct. 3, 2010, cost the church about $13,000, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

Schafer said he and others arrived at the church for worship Sunday to find four units gone, and an uncomfortably warm Fellowship Hall.

The congregation prayed for the unknown thieves, he said, then paid to replace the units — with the new units enclosed with cages and locks.

“After the first four, we talked about getting some cameras,” Schafer said. “But I think we assumed this was not going to happen again. And, of course, it did.”

In February, two more units were taken, he said. The church then purchased camera equipment.

“I think the economy has emboldened people,” Schafer said. “We’re not a huge church, and the economy has hit our families, as well . . . so that affects giving. Even with insurance, we were out a couple thousand dollars, which is a lot of money for us, as a smaller church.”

Waco Independent School District shelled out more than $180,000 to replace destroyed air conditioning units, spokesman Dale Caffey said.

One campus hit last year counted its losses at $115,000 after thieves wiped out all the air conditioning units, he said. The district’s campuses also were struck at least three times in March, resulting in the loss of 18 units, Caffey said.

Also frequently visited are homes under construction, as well as abandoned or vacant buildings, Swanton said.

Recently, police arrested three men accused of raiding the now-empty Parkside Village, 1413 N. Ninth St.

Two of the men were caught after a foot chase. A third was found hiding in a bathtub.

Prevention

The best bet for residents trying to protect their air conditioning units is to make it tougher to take them, police and air conditioning specialists said.

Swanton said anything that will make it harder to get to — such as a cage, which can slow down a thief — will help deter thefts. It’s also recommended that the units are in well-lit areas.

Swanton also suggested that people pay attention to the sound of a freon line being cut.

“They’re under pressure, so they’re very loud,” he said. “If people hear that, that’s what they’re doing — it’s like a burglar alarm going off.”

Copper sales

According to court documents, Harold sold $6,626 worth of air conditioner parts and metals — including 56 sealed units, 48 electric motors and 31 aluminum copper radiators — to M. Lipsitz & Co. scrap metal recycling since Jan. 7.

The companies are required by law to request and photocopy sellers’ identifications and to record a description and license plate number of the vehicle used to take the material to the facility.

They also are required to log all transactions, including the name and address of the person who sold the material and their identification number, such as a driver’s license number.

The records must be provided upon the request of a peace officer and also be submitted to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Go Green Recycling, which has a location in Elm Mott, compiles a “top-10” list each month of its most frequent recyclers in order to keep track of potentially suspicious activity, company president Phillip Beitman said.

Melvin Lipsitz, vice president of M. Lipsitz & Co., declined an interview request by the Tribune-Herald for this story.

Two messages left this week for Greg Hill of CMC Recycling were unreturned.

Swanton said Wednesday the only way to put an end to the thefts is with the help of the entire community.

He said residents should call in suspicious activity.

Similarly, Swanton said it would be beneficial for scrap metal companies to be alert when someone is dropping off metals several times a week without explanation.

“It’s not a business’ job to do police work,” he said. “But (it’s like) how it takes a village to raise a child. It’s the same principle. We can’t do this on our own.”

kcrow@wacotrib.com

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