Mannix Porterfield, The Register-Herald, Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia)

Under the cover of darkness, thieves sneak up a telephone pole hoping to make off with valuable copper wire. In the process, the nocturnal bandits disrupt telephone lines. This not only inconveniences those served by them, but it puts residents at risk if they need to call police, or 911 to get an ambulance, in a personal crisis, says Delegate Gary Howell, R-Mineral.

Not to mention the disruption of Internet service, on which an increasing number of people rely for contact to work from home, the lawmaker says.

Yet, even if caught, such thievery is normally a misdemeanor.

Howell has crafted a bill for the West Virginia Legislature to consider in the upcoming regular session that would make such thievery a felony, punishable by a prison stretch of one to 10 years, or a $10,000 fine, or both.

He cannot say for sure if any emergency communications have been disturbed so far because it cannot be determined if any such calls were missed.

“The problem is these people break into a junction box and steal a big chunk of copper wire,” Howell said.

“Let’s say they get 50 pounds and it’s worth $300. It’s just a misdemeanor, even though it has disrupted communications to who knows who and to how many people. The other problem is these guys are going underground or climbing up a pole and cutting down the wire to steal the copper, and then they find out it’s fiber optic.”

Once that occurs, the owner is looking at a repair bill into the thousands, albeit nothing was stolen.

“About the best they can do is charge them with criminal mischief,” the lawmaker said.

“Most of these thefts are so low they were misdemeanors, but they’re causing thousands of dollars’ worth of disrupted business and whatever. But you can’t use that lost value. I run an Internet mail order company. They cut my home line, I’m out of business.”

Some feel the burden needs to be imposed on folks who purchase scrap metal.

“But the reality is, you don’t know the source, whether it’s legitimate or stolen,” Howell said.

“It’s a little bit different in a pawn shop where you bring a television in and it might have a serial number on it and it might be traced. So, there’s a big hole in the law.”

For that reason, Howell decided to embark on a new tack – punishing culprits from the standpoint of disrupting emergency means of communications. After all, if a person’s home phone line is sliced, there is a separation from a 911 center. That means the occupant cannot call police or get an ambulance.

Copper thieves aren’t operating in the dark, figuratively, Howell said.

“They know what the threshold is,” he said. “They know that if they steal it in small chunks, there’s no single chunk that puts them over into a felony range. What this does, if you have disrupted an emergency communications, it is now a felony. It’s sabotage with intent to steal. If they cut a fiber optic cable, as soon they cut it and realize what it is, they don’t want it anymore. Their intent was to steal that cable because they thought it was copper.”

If an AM radio tower extends 100 feet upward, says Howell, most are unaware that 100 feet of copper wire radiates outward in all directions at the bottom.

“Some have giant copper mats underground, buried down a couple of feet,” the delegate said. “Some have been digging them up in different parts of the country.”

That copper has become a coveted item is indisputable, he said.

“People are collecting it almost like a precious metal,” Howell said. “There are a couple of places that deal in copper bars. You buy them and stick them in your basement.”

Copyright © 2011 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.