After night falls in Gilroy, it’s dark along the entire paved pathway directly across the entrance of Christmas Hill Park and on the lighted softball field. The light fixtures are functional, but the connecting wires have been gutted by criminals.
A team of thieves peeled back the concrete lids on the ground connecting to the lights along the pathway, snipped the connections on both ends and reeled in the copper-insulated wiring typically sold on the scrap metal recycling market once the plastic has been melted off at $3 a pound.
Just a stone’s throw across Miller Avenue, thieves used the same technique to pull out the copper wire from nearly a dozen electrical boxes on the ground to the lights surrounding the softball field. They also severed the connections to the lights adjacent to the backstop bleachers but never finished the job.
The thieves walked away with nearly 2,000 feet of copper wire, according to City officials, and effectively rendered the pathway unsafe after dark and the softball field useless to the community’s adult softball league. The theft occurred in early November with fixes planned next month.
“This is the most blatant theft of infrastructure I’ve seen,” Parks Supervisor Bill Headley said, who’s worked in Gilroy for nearly four decades. “It’s a loss for the community.”
Once copper wire is stolen, it’s typically sold to scrap metal recyclers. But it likely wasn’t “big money” for the thieves: It’s a different story for Gilroy, according to Headley.
The City will put the entire $145,000-repair project to bid on April 8. Work is slated to begin in early May, City Engineer Ian King said. The softball field lights will be replaced separately in the coming weeks, while additional theft-preventive retrofits designed to make it more difficult for thieves to wrangle copper wire from the ground will take place this spring. The security upgrades will be the most expensive item, ringing in at an expected cost of $95,000, Headley noted.
“If you’re intent on coming to steal copper wire at Christmas Hill Park, it’s going to take you more time and energy to get that wire,” he said. “Time is more of a risk for you as a thief.”
The latest theft of copper wire is just one of many Headley has seen over the years, from streetlights being torn up underground to the pulling of copper wire from the lights at the Gilroy Sports Park two years ago – which he notes was done in a similar fashion to the Christmas Hill Park job.
“We categorize it as epidemic in nature,” Headley added. “It’s causing all of us to have to look at electrical systems differently. Higher security measures will probably be commonplace – which adds to the cost of doing business.”
After City staff noticed the opened electrical boxes at Christmas Hill Park on Nov. 8 at 8:15 a.m., Gilroy Police Department arrived to begin the investigation.
When the GPD responds to an incident of copper theft, the investigating officer will visit all metal recycling centers in town and check the mandated logs of all transactions – ones that also list the names of customers, according to Sgt. Pedro Espinoza. In Gilroy alone, there are approximately a dozen recycling centers.
“Most (recycling centers) are pretty cooperative during investigations. Whenever somebody brings in copper wire to try and recycle, they’re usually call us to make sure we didn’t have a theft,” Espinoza said. “The only problem is if they take it to someone outside of the City, it makes it more difficult to follow up on that.”
According to local and federal authorities, copper theft is pervasive across the country, becoming a growing concern in Gilroy and Santa Clara County. In January, thieves took roughly 2,700-feet of copper wire from 15 streetlights and underground boxes in a neighborhood in southwest Morgan Hill. San Jose experienced theft of copper wire underground on a major highway in February.
“It’s one of those crimes of opportunity that doesn’t take too much effort to bypass the locking mechanisms,” Espinoza said. “They’re taking the risk of getting electrocuted since it’s extremely dangerous.”
While the thieves potentially raked in at least a few hundred dollars based on the quantity of wire removed from Christmas Hill Park, the adult softball recreation program is without a field to play on after dark – at least until it’s operational again.
Recreation Department Director Maria DeLeon said the program’s season is typically slated to begin March 21 but will be delayed until mid-April.
“The repairs of these lights are imperative,” she said, adding that the pathway repairs are just as critical. “There are a lot of community members who ride their bikes, walk after work or school and use that to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Nobody wants to walk or exercise in the dark.”
While the theft-deterrent measures slated for installation will help slow down would-be copper thieves, City officials said they would like to stress that residents can often be the first line of defense for their local facilities.
“The eyes and ears of the community are the best anti-theft measure we could hope for,” Headley said. “Know your neighbors, know your community and be a good witness.”
He’s calling on Gilroyans to be vigilant and call the police if they see a suspicious person near streetlights or in the park late at night – even if they see a vehicle that doesn’t look like it belongs. Typically, criminals use some sort of truck or van to haul illicitly obtained copper wire.
“If nothing comes of it, that’s great,” Headley added. “Hopefully it will be one of those times we catch somebody red-handed.”
In Santa Clara County
January: Morgan Hill neighborhood, 2,700 feet
February: Various underground pump stations in San Jose
November: Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy, 2,000 feet
Copper theft presents a threat to public safety and critical infrastructure that cities across the country are dealing with, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Each year, metal theft costs national businesses $1 billion, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates. Repair costs are significantly more complicated – and expensive – when wires are pulled out after factoring in the required supplies and man hours.
