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Red gold! Copper crooks strike

By Ben Muessig
The Brooklyn Paper

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Copper-thieving varmints made at least two more heists of the increasingly valuable metal last week, following five copper thefts from neighborhood construction sites and metal companies earlier this month.

In the latest cases:

• Greenpoint metal crooks ransacked a North Eighth Street construction site for piping made out of the common commodity.

The crooks struck at some time between 4 pm on April 11 and 7 am on April 14, snatching $1,259 of copper from the third floor of the building at the corner of Roebling Street.

• Thieves snatched $3,230 of copper cellular communications equipment from a Meserole Street apartment building on April 17.

The hoods heisted the copper bands, wires, grounding kits and connectors, which belong to a national cellphone provider, between 2 pm and 2:30 pm, escaping from the building, which is between Graham Avenue and Humboldt Street, while an employee stepped away.

Last week’s Brooklyn Paper reported that four construction sites and one metals company were ransacked in the latest outbreak of copper fever.

Brooklyn Bridge Realty

And that’s on top of a half-dozen other thefts in Downtown Brooklyn last year.

The cost of the once-cheap metal has soared from $3,000 a ton three years ago to $8,700 a ton today.

©2008 The Brooklyn Paper

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