LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – A Louisville business owner is spending thousands of dollars in repairs after his rental property was broken into twice by copper wire thieves.
Steve Diebold is chairman of WireCrafters, which rents out industrial buildings in south Louisville to other companies. In August, when the building was vacant, thieves broke into one of the back doors and stole all the copper wire inside.
“The side door was almost destroyed and the robbers came in and pulled out all the electrical wiring,” Diebold said. “They took all the copper they could find out of the building.”
Diebold took great care to make the building safe and paid about $50,000 to replace the electrical wiring, but that wasn’t the end of the story.
About a month after the first robbery, the thieves struck again, this time gaining entry through a loading dock. The thieves again took all of the building’s electrical wiring and even stole the copper water pipes, leaving the building without electricity or running water.
Diebold estimates it will cost another $70,000 to make all the repairs.
He also currently rents two surveillance cameras with motion sensors, which cost an additional $6,000 per month.
There is no security footage of the two break-ins, so finding the robbers will be an uphill battle.
“The police are like, yes, we’ll report it, but there’s not much they can do unless they have proof of who was here, unless they have pictures or something to prove that someone was in this building. ” Diebold said.
For the time being, the property cannot be rented to other tenants until repairs are completed.
“You wonder if you can stop them, because no matter what you do, it’s a huge asset and if they want to come in, depending on their audacity, they can You’ll get what you want and walk away,” Diebold said. Said.
The copper theft at Diebold’s property is one of hundreds in the Louisville area this year alone. Through August, LMPD responded to 328 reports of metal theft in 2024.
Mayor Craig Greenberg this week announced the creation of a new task force to track copper wire theft and prosecute thieves. KYTC estimates it has spent more than $1 million repairing street and highway lights damaged by wire theft in the past two years.
A $15,000 cash reward is being offered to anyone who provides information that leads to the conviction of the copper wire thief.
Since the new task force was announced, LMPD has already made one copper theft arrest.
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