My prize ghetto listing was stripped this week of all its beautiful, recently winterized copper. Stupid crooks..they could have just went through the front window, which I leave open a crack for ventilation. Instead what do they do? They rip the boards off the rear windows and door, and smash the glass out of a throw-away vinyl replacement rendering the whole window unit junk.
Anyone else get hit recently?

Well apparently one of my REO's has been a hot spot to drop off illegals. Nothing will stop them from breaking into the property. Detached side door, they are going through the attic(or keeping them in there). I'm probably going to call the border patrol and let them know what's going on.

YEP...had some tenants moving out of a 4 unit ..CFK... next thing i know they called me asking me why i shut off the water...i headed over there...and the copper was missing... i suspect they did it themselves... they just happened to be getting there CFK that day ..everything packed and ready to go..and they copper goes missing and water shut off? ...they were real shady... i got another one ..absolutely nothing left in the place.. nothing ! ..what a shame

Had one incident this winter....they kicked in the basement door, cut out the pipes that were easy to get to; $800 worth of damage. Crazy thing....the house sits at a busy four-way intersection with constant traffic. These criminals just didn't care.

"the house sits at a busy four-way intersection with constant traffic. These criminals just didn't care."


Heck if that's the case you should have bought it,demoed it,and sold to a developer for a better and higher use and made a killing.

Even though I work in small cities mostly (Harrisburg, Lebanon and Lancaster PA) we still have the same issues with copper theives. The worst part is they generally take the water meter with them. In Harrisburg, you need what they call a City Settlement Sheet to close. This form is basically a list of unpaid city bills (sewer, trash, water) and they also require a buyer's inspection in which the inspector notes the water meter reading. Replacing the water meter is not an option, since there's no plumbing and they won't hook it up.
So we have to get notarized statement from both buyer and seller, leave a $180 escrow (which always seems to be the amount due after installation) and wait 3 more weeks.
The worst part is that there are only 3 places that the copper can be sold, all conveniently close to the majority of the REO properties.
My take is that the thieves look for the water shut-off notices that the city posts is large letters on the front door. They're kind of like yelling "Come On Down" on the Price Is right

Around here we have quite a few large pivot farm irrigation sprinklers. With a nice large copper wire running along the top of them for up to 1/2 a mile. Thieves have been stealing those in the winter. Mind that they have to climb 20 feet in the air all along the sprinkler to take of the brakets holding the wire.

Haven't had any stolen from any of our REO's (knock on wood), but about 2 months ago a local man was killed trying to steal the copper off the top of an electrical pole, you know the really big ones on the side of the highway with all the signs that say "WARNING, high electical levels" and such...

Copper was totally stripped in one of my really bad neighborhood listings.

Just got a new listing in a decent neighborhood (same city) and there is a big sign in the yard of a house a few doors away ...

It says "I WILL BUY YOUR COPPER"

Are you kidding me?

Yep- me too. They got all the copper pipes, AND started stripping the copper electrical wires from the basement up. IMO about $2000 worth of damage for what the police said would yield the bastards $30-40 worth of crack....

A good reason to leave the electricity turned on... sort of a home made bug zapper.

I had the copper stolen at one of my listings in northern NH a couple months back. I am so tempted to put a sign on the door that say "Copper has already been stolen, so don't bother!"

Thats a good one.

NH-REO- I like that! I may use it all my listings in questionable areas, whether it was stolen or not. Of course, if prospective buyers see it, they may not even call, and I am sure the Bank wouldn't like it....
Oh well, it seemed like a good idea at first!

I have a reo listing with the buyer as well and he noticed that someone stole some palms tree's... He knows who and I think I do..
What to do?? I know what I would like to do...
By the way the people that stole them have a $800,000 house which is very exspensive for my area

you mean they dug them out of the ground loaded them on a pick up and took them over to their place? No one saw this when it was happening?

The buyer saw this and is not happy...
The wife does not want to get involved....
I was going to go over there today and poke around to see if I can view the rear of the suspects house to verify fresh treees..
Pics do speak a thousand words...
How would you proceed?
They dug them up and carried them a few doors down

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RxBa5bQfTGc



I don't know about you, but i think the idea of having a robotic sentry would be much better than anything else i've devised....

Anyone want to get in on a group buy of these things?

Its interesting but I bet its worth more than most of my listings that copper gets stolen from.

If you had the source code......

Maybe $200 in parts?

I dont think I would want to leave a laptop in a vacant house in detroit. Besides you would need more than one to guard an entire house. Not only that, but im sure I would go to jail for using something like this.

I actually had an idea. Have the bank hire someone to remove the copper properly. Most of the damage comes from the copper being removed when the water is on. Then give the copper back once its closed, or have the hire someone to reinstall it. This might work in some neighborhoods, but my listings in detroit get stripped of plumbing, wiring, aluminum siding, or anything else made of metal. I had one property when they tried pulling the piping from the cement in the basement. My plumber had to jackhammer the cement just to crimp the pipe, because the outside valve couldnt be accessed.

Call the police.

It's most likely a felony - Every palm tree we've bought has been over $400, making that multiple counts of grand theft.

10/15/2008- Any copper theft lately with anyones REOs? Copper today is about $2.23 lb, much lower from its high of about $4 several months ago. I have been spared so far with my properties, and wonder about the rest of you for my informal poll.

New listing last week, was vandalized. Not sure when it happened.

Nope not lately. Since these thieves and dope heads never bought the copper from the git-go its all profit to them no matter how much the going rate is. I heard these people are stealing copper out of the street lights in Los Angeles and turning it in. In some parts of the Bay Area, the recycle centers are making people show ID and fill out a form with their information before they can turn in copper and aluminum cans. Not only has it been a problem with copper vandalism but there has also been a problem with people going through recycle bins and trash cans on garbage day and leaving a huge mess in front of homes. A/C units seem to be a huge commodity too!

I knew the one REO my client was going to buy was bad when the home had the copper stolen not once but twice and the bank eneded up footing the bill for a 24 hour security guard. At that point I advised my client to back out of the deal. Thank goodness we didnt remove any contingencies.

I had A LOT of fun negotiating the return of her deposit with the bank. I think they rewrote their addendum after I was able to get all of her deposit returned regardless of what their addendum stated.

We had an old ac unit stored in a niche (sort of out of the way) at one of our triplexes. That thing set there for at least 2 years and I was thinking about getting rid of it because my heat 'n air guy said it was shot. Some thief took care of the removal for me right around the end of August. That's all that's come up missing from any of our properties or listings so far.

I had a double awning that was being used to cover the open side of a stairwell. Someone has taken it loose from the back of the stairwell almost daily in the past two weeks. One of my tenants works for a recycler and she pointed out that people are bringing in all of the aluminum they can get their hands on. She and I hauled that awning into the storeroom for safekeeping the other day. (It's going over a double window once I have a particular house painted.)

edited to say: the point is that this type of theft is happening not just to REOs but also to rental units that are managed by people not on-site.

Theft has slowed down here since the recycling center now requires a picture ID and takes your picture. They require it for everything except cans.