New stickers aim to deter copper wire thieves in Tulare County: ‘It's not worth a felony'
Aspiring thieves looking to steal copper wire from farm equipment in Tulare County will start seeing stickers informing them that, 'This equipment only contains aluminum wire.'
The Tulare County District Attorney's Office and the Tulare County Farm Bureau are distributing bright yellow waterproof stickers to farmers and ranchers that will also caution thieves that, 'It's not worth a felony.'
Copper wire theft has been a growing problem in Tulare County and throughout the nation. The U.S. Department of Energy has estimated that metal theft costs U.S. businesses around $1 billion a year.
'If you ask the ranchers and the growers and the farmers out there, it would be a big problem,' Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward said. 'It's a big problem because it's not just about replacing the wire, there's damage to the pump. The damage to your pump far exceeds the value of the recycled copper wire that is gleaned.'
Tulare County Farm Bureau Executive Director Tricia Stever Blattler agrees.
'The money that the thief receives is very, very small,' she said. 'Sometimes maybe they make 50 bucks, 80 bucks, a couple hundred bucks off of what they've stolen, and that might cost the farmer a few thousand dollars to repair the equipment.
'Often the copper wiring is underneath a cover of metal and they tear into wind machines and different pieces of equipment that have covers on them,' she said. 'At that point, they've already done damage to the unit and have probably cut through a fence, cut through chain link or padlocks and caused other damage.'
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Local farmers informally discussed this problem with Ward at the Tulare Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards Dinner on Jan. 24.
'They shared with me that a lot of the growers, themselves included, have replaced all of their copper wire with aluminum wire,' Ward said, adding that their equipment still gets 'vandalized for no reason.'
Local farmers and ranchers started spray painting signs next to their equipment to let thieves know that there is 'only aluminum wire here.'
'I thought, 'Well, that's kind of interesting,'' said Ward, who then decided to use some of the resources in his office to help farmers and ranchers in their crime-prevention efforts.
As a result, the stickers were created in time to be distributed at the World Ag Expo.
Ward explained that the sticker program has two main goals.
'One, I want the bad actors out there to know that it's not worth the felony vandalism, because you're not going to get any copper wire,' he said. 'Ancillary to that is the general message that crime doesn't pay in Tulare County. If you're caught, you will be prosecuted.
'We want our growers and our ranchers out there to know that law enforcement stands behind them,' he added. 'This theft and damage to their equipment should not just be automatically factored in as a cost to doing business.'
Ward believes that copper wire theft is underreported in the county and hopes this program will help change that.
'Coming out of COVID, there was a general malaise, especially in California,' he said. 'Why call the cops? Nothing is going to happen to these people.
'Prop. 36 is certainly changing that,' he said. 'We do see a change in attitude. Talking to my police chief friends, they're seeing an increase in theft calls. The victims are now calling, which is good.
'We want our victims to know that they're not alone, that they should report,' Ward said. 'Whether or not something can be done should not be the deciding factor in reporting, because there could be more to the story.
'Maybe the three neighboring places were vandalized and there's video footage of that,' he said. 'You never know the entire story so, just as we often say, please report.'
After the farm show, the stickers will be available at the Tulare County Farm Bureau office.
'Folks are welcome to come by and pick them up during our business hours,' Blatter said.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Tulare County stickers put would-be copper wire thieves on notice
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