HOLDEN, Maine — Police are looking into a recent burglary of a foreclosed home in which copper piping was stolen and thousands in damage was done.
The break-in was discovered about 5:50 a.m. Thursday by an employee of a property management group, Holden police Sgt. Eugene Fizell said Thursday evening.
The management company has been checking monthly on the house on Levenseller Road, which has been vacant for about half a year, Fizell said. He said it was not clear when the burglary occurred.
Fizell said the thief or thieves removed about $500 worth of copper — causing an estimated $4,000 in damage in the process.
“They probably got 90 percent of the copper tubing that was in the house,” Fizell said, adding that the burglar or burglars used circular pipe cutters to cut up the copper, tearing through sheetrock walls and ceilings to get at it.
Three bedrooms, the living room and a bathroom were cleaned of copper piping and fixtures, he said. Whoever broke in also pulled up a toilet and water tank and tore the shower apart to get at the plumbing.
Fizell said anyone who sees suspicious activity near a vacant home should call 911. Anyone with information about the Levenseller incident can call Holden police at 843-5442.
Sounds like more than $4,000 in damage.
It does to me too. If you have to have all that fixed, plumbers and contractors are not that cheap.
I’m unschool in this but am wondering who BUYS the copper from these thieves?
Scrap yards, which in turn sell it for a profit.
Exactly. And that’s where the problem needs to be fixed.
Maybe they should look into the property management group. I used to work for one and the owner was the biggest crook around.
It is time to come up with some special regulations for the sale/purchase of used copper tubing.
One would think that the legitimate scrap dealers would want some tighter controls on their business. The police know who the rotten apples are-they just need to be able to prove it-and they have nailed a few buyers lately.
There wouldn’t be so many vacant homes if the bankers and bank deregulators hadn’t put us into this Great Recession.