Pittsburgh's Zone 4 police are warning homeowners in Shadyside, Squirrel Hill and Point Breeze to be alert for thieves attempting to steal copper downspouts like those affixed to drainage gutters.
Commander Daniel Herrmann said he's collected more than 25 theft reports since June.
“A lot of the homes here have copper downspouts attached to them,” Herrmann said, “and suddenly from, say June, July and now into August, there are certain people going to these homes, shaking the downspout loose and then running off with it.”
He said the 12- to 16-foot downspouts can be removed from a house in as little as 12 seconds. Copper downspouts of that length retail for roughly $150.
At the moment, not much is known about who might be carrying out these burglaries or whether they are related, according to Herrmann.
“It’s difficult to track who these people are (and) when these are occurring, because a lot of them are occurring when people are away,” he said. “So to track a certain day, a certain time, a certain area is difficult.”
Police received a video of a white male removing a downspout and loading it into a green pickup truck, Herrmann said, but the man in the video is unidentifiable.
Police have been keeping an eye on scrap yards in the area, but so far that has led nowhere. Herrmann said it is possible the thieves are not selling them for scrap.
“Let’s say a contractor who does roofing and downspouts, maybe they’re asking the thieves, ‘Hey, I need some copper downspouts, get me some,’ and then they reuse them somewhere, and they’re not scrapping them,” he said. “We don’t know.”
Homeowners and neighbors are urged to call police to report any suspicious activity, even if someone appears to be a legitimate contractor.
“We have to remember, the best burglar alarm is a nebby neighbor,” Herrmann said.
Patrols have been stepped up over the last month and a half. He said the department is planning to deploy plain clothes officers to patrol at night.
