I have written about copper theft here before. This winter, there have been reports of the outdoor shower pipes being cut off houses by thieves and sold for copper scrap.

In Dennisport, a vacation home owner noticed that his outdoor shower faucet and pipes had been cut and removed from his home. A subsequent investigation revealed that there were several other unoccupied homes in the area that had also had their outdoor shower pipes stolen.

In Osterville, several high end homes were targeted for their copper gutters and downspouts.

OSTERVILLE — About five homes, mostly in exclusive neighborhoods, have been stripped of their copper gutters and downspouts in a series of recent thefts, according to the Barnstable police.

In the last two or three weeks, homes on Seaview Avenue, and Eel River and Parker roads have been robbed of their copper, which is used to make high-end gutters and downspouts, said Barnstable police Sgt. Sean Sweeney.

Twelve copper downspouts, each about 8 to 12 feet long, were stolen from one house on Seaview Avenue…

In one case, a Marstons Mills man watched as a brazen thief pulled up in a pickup truck and trailer and stole copper pipes the homeowner was storing in his back yard.

Metal Prices

Copper is in high demand this year. In early January copper surged to its highest price in almost four months. Bloomberg has predicted that copper prices will rise to near $3.88 a pound in 2013, which means copper will be high on the list for scrap metal thieves.

Prevention

Since these thefts occur from outside the home, or in the crawlspace where copper plumbing is sought, having an alarm system installed doesn’t do much good in preventing copper theft.  Hiring a security patrol unit to do exterior property checks on your unoccupied vacation home, or installing security cameras may deter this from happening. At the very least, these property checks will alert you to copper theft sooner, giving the police a better chance of catching the thief.