Copper wire thieves threaten Federal Way soccer tournament
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FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- The thieves who targeted Federal Way's Celebration Park were only after copper wire, but they may have stolen much more than that.
Police say the thieves arrived at the park late Monday night or early Tuesday morning, making off with as much as $30,000 worth of copper wiring.
The monetary loss is bad enough, but the theft is also threatening a huge weekend soccer tournament. Eighty teams will soon descend on Federal Way to play 300 soccer games, but without power organizers may be forced to cancel games.
"This is about the third incident that's happened since June," said Cathy Schrock of the Federal Way Police Department. "They will hit an area and then they'll move to another area. It's a sophisticated system of thieves."
And it's not just a matter of lights, either. When the thieves cut the power lines, it also cut out the irrigation system That means the soccer fields could die.
The news has players and coaches stunned.
"It's kids, it's a community park, it's for everybody to use. To take it, I think that's pretty low," said soccer coach Jerry Kurtti.
Perry Woodford of the Federal Way Soccer Association is also at his wit's end.
"We've put measures in trying to prevent it, but then they come in and damage things trying to get to the wires, and then you have to repair those," he said.
Parents already pay between $175 and $2,500 for their kids to play, but they may soon have to shell out even more money.
"It keeps happening. We've got to help support it. We're the users and users have to pay in, too, not just the taxpayer and the city," Woodford said.
Playtime aside, the thefts also created a security issue. Woodford said the stolen wiring also served all of the security lighting in the park.
City officials weren't available for comment on Wednesday, but Woodford said he's hoping to have the electricity repaired by Friday afternoon. If that doesn't happen, he said many games will have to be moved and some may even be canceled.
Police say the thieves arrived at the park late Monday night or early Tuesday morning, making off with as much as $30,000 worth of copper wiring.
The monetary loss is bad enough, but the theft is also threatening a huge weekend soccer tournament. Eighty teams will soon descend on Federal Way to play 300 soccer games, but without power organizers may be forced to cancel games.
"This is about the third incident that's happened since June," said Cathy Schrock of the Federal Way Police Department. "They will hit an area and then they'll move to another area. It's a sophisticated system of thieves."
And it's not just a matter of lights, either. When the thieves cut the power lines, it also cut out the irrigation system That means the soccer fields could die.
The news has players and coaches stunned.
"It's kids, it's a community park, it's for everybody to use. To take it, I think that's pretty low," said soccer coach Jerry Kurtti.
Perry Woodford of the Federal Way Soccer Association is also at his wit's end.
"We've put measures in trying to prevent it, but then they come in and damage things trying to get to the wires, and then you have to repair those," he said.
Parents already pay between $175 and $2,500 for their kids to play, but they may soon have to shell out even more money.
"It keeps happening. We've got to help support it. We're the users and users have to pay in, too, not just the taxpayer and the city," Woodford said.
Playtime aside, the thefts also created a security issue. Woodford said the stolen wiring also served all of the security lighting in the park.
City officials weren't available for comment on Wednesday, but Woodford said he's hoping to have the electricity repaired by Friday afternoon. If that doesn't happen, he said many games will have to be moved and some may even be canceled.
Poor Fed Way. If it isn't drive by shootings, it's tweekers stealing everything. How you feeling now about all that low income housing you stuck everywhere?
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I disagree. Copper wire would make an excellent alternative to a hemp hangman's rope...
Who is buying this copper? Â Prosecute them too! Â Heads up - if you have a tweaker coming at you with a bunch of copper (or anything of value at a pawn shop), it's stolen! Â Is the purchase and sale of these metals regulated in any way? Â Anyone know?
Please catch these low-lives and ... ughh! Â just disgusting!
In trying to get an estimate of the damage and the sophistication of this crime the printed article differs from the news report. The news report said between $15k - $30k of damage was done but the printed article says "as much as $30,000 worth of copper wiring". Watching the news report these crooks seem to be small scale and more of the estimate seems to be in the damage they did versus the amount of cable stolen. Most the cable in this park is underground and for them to get $30k of copper cable they would have to pull the cable from the underground conduits which does not seem to be the case here since every picture I saw the cable was cut at ground level. Pulling the cable from conduits would require some type of power system even if it just a car they tie it to, but it would have been a little bit more conspicuous which is the last thing these thieves want.
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Now, I do agree with the other posters here that want to put more restrictions on the purchase of scrap anything. Unfortunately this has to be done at the federal level to include interstate/out of country trafficking. China is buying up all of the worlds scrap metal because it is easier to do this then it is for China to build their own mining infrastructure. US scrap companies have been making huge fortunes and a lot of this is coming from the black market schemes like this. If these big companies had to provide records of their purchases and sales they will ensure the little scrappers that are buying from these low life thieves will fall in line to with proper records.
 @Beam_Me_Up Those costs typically include the cost of labor to reinstall the missing equipment and cables. They could even include any potential lost revenue from venues that charge admission etc.
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The thief may have only been paid $100 for the copper, but all the other work to repair is the most expensive part of these thefts.
$30,000 worth of copper, and they will probably net $1,500. It's time to adopt Sharia law when it comes to thieves. It's been proven to work.
 @eichler34 Who gets to decide what part of Sharia law to "adopt" and what not to adopt? You don't want to really go down this path, because once it starts you will never get the fanatics out of the system.
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We don't need "new" laws, we need people to enforce the ones we have. Plus we need the "scrappers" to stop accepting this "stolen" merchandise from non Licensed recyclers.
the city should install silent alarms on the power boxes so when someone opens them the police are notified.
 @32jim2 It only costs money to do that, which program would you cut from someone's budget to pay for it?
 @RTNavy  @32jim2 It's better than losing $30k every time these thieves hit.
So were the FWPD Officers working that night on speed trap duty, or patrolling?
 @Controlled-Insanity That is a great question. Every time I see a person pulled over for speeding in FW, there are 3+ cops on the scene.Â
They need to put stricter laws in place for those who buy copper wiring. If these people couldn't sell it they would have no reason to steal it. Maybe they should hook this wiring in with a couple thousand volts so when they cut it they fry.Â
 @citizen kane Generally the stuff gets hauled down to Mexico and sold there.
This isn't the 1950's. Make metal dealers responsible;e for what they buy and who they buy it from. And the soccer parents can also thank the drug culture.Â
it isn't difficult to find hand hold boxes that contain all that wire, maybe that's just because i sell them on a consistent basis, but still. nonetheless they need to be caught and be made to pull and install the wire themselves and learn what hard work is. it isn't easy pulling heavy gauge wirelike that through conduit.
These perps are scum, pure scum of the earth. We have social programs for food banks, unemployment, Section 8 housing and many other programs for free stuff so there is no reason for someone to steal this wiring. I hope these parasites overdose to remove them from our society.
Federal Way needs to install hidden cameras and a sensor around the park to trigger activity at night, or pay a security company to monitor them or have them directly monitored at the police department.
 @obsidianone:Â
They'd probably steal the cameras as well. Plus, if they steal the electrical wires that run the systems, the cameras would not work.
 @ObsidianOne they steal it to sell it for money to buy drugs -that is their reason. Cameras are a good idea.
Seems to me that perhaps they should consider replacing the wiring with aluminum. I know it's not as good, and there are issues, so it has to be done right or it's a problem. But I suspect the thieves would be less likely to be trying to steal the wires if they knew it was aluminum...
And then we need to seriously strengthen the laws regulating the buying and selling of scrap metals, to include not just copper, but precious metals as well. Authorities should be able to visit a scrap yard, and look up exactly who sold each and every bit of scrap there, to the yard. Buyers should be required to report buying lots of copper electrical wire over certain fairly small amounts, and should be required to retain purchased lots for a given holding period, to give authorities, who'd have been given logs of purchases, to inspect anything that seems suspicious. Sellers of scrap to dealers should not only have to provide proper identification, but also allow a photographic record to be kept of their face....  Who knows what all else. But somehow, it should be possible to put a halt to the easy ability of thieves to dispose of ill gotten copper. If it's hard to sell the stuff without giving away one's identity, etc, then the temptation might be a good deal less.
Hope the field gets it straightened out somehow. Would be a shame to have to just cancel the events.
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I'm guessing more druggies who don't give a crap about who they're hurting.
Ugh.. freaking meth heads. I think its time to start ventilating these cretins when caught.