If I were the judge he would get 12 months in the swamp with a slingblade, and then when he got out, 75% of his paycheck would go towards restitution until every dime was paid to the mall owners for the damage. Congrats RCSO.
A citywide crackdown on copper thefts yielded the arrest of a suspect Thursday who authorities say caused more than $1 million in damage to Regency Mall.
Richmond County sheriff's Lt. Tony Walden said his investigators fanned out to the area's recycling centers Thursday in an attempt to catch copper thieves selling stolen products.
Police say they spotted Calvin Burnett, 25, of Augusta, carrying a large amount of copper wire into Newell Recycling Augusta-LLC on Molly Pond Road. When police confronted him, they said, Mr. Burnett fled the scene and was apprehended after a brief chase.
Mr. Burnett was charged with criminal damage to property, theft by taking and numerous traffic charges, Lt. Walden said.
The copper was reportedly traced back to Regency Mall, where 57 rooftop commercial air-conditioning units had been stripped of their copper, causing $1.2 million in damage to the facility, according to an estimate by the owner, Cardinal Regency Mall, LLC.
Lt. Walden said the damage is the most costly he has seen caused in one copper theft.
He stressed that investigators will continue to conduct random spot checks of the area's recycling centers.
"If you don't catch them in the act, the next best thing is to go where they're selling the goods," Lt. Walden said.
It's been about two months since police assigned an investigator to specifically handle all copper-related thefts and in that time the office has made 18 arrests, sheriff's Maj. Ken Autry said.
Lt. Walden said it was normal to get three or four reports of copper thefts a day in previous months, but the sheriff's office now averages one or two a day.
"We're making some headway by attacking this as aggressively as we can," he said.
As the price of various metals, particularly copper, have risen in recent years, so have the amount of thefts from homes and business, officials said.
Reach Adam Folk at (706) 823-3339 or adam.folk@augustachronicle.com.
Comments
If I were the judge he would get 12 months in the swamp with a slingblade, and then when he got out, 75% of his paycheck would go towards restitution until every dime was paid to the mall owners for the damage. Congrats RCSO.
Good job RCSD, but do we not need to look at the recycle companies that are taking in copper from anybody who walks in off the street. I mean come on. Your everyday working person would just not walk in off the street and sell copper. Now if you were in the heating and air or built houses went in a company owned car or truck. Sold a very small amount back. I would say that is uderstandable. But for Joe Blow to walk in looking like he was on crack. Selling copper you know something is not right.
It's a shame that a guy like this can run amuck for what must have been a year in plain sight before finally getting caught. Congratulations to the 'copper cop' for catching him, but can't anyone else pay attention? The sad fact is that, between meth and crack, anything that is not nailed down or continuously monitored will walk away.
I'm not condoning the actions, but the owner of the Regency Mall property must be well out of his mind. $1.2 million in damages? The entire facility isn't worth that much. It's become an eyesore, with no apparent hope of any future.
edst4, you are right it don't take a genious to recognize a crack or meth head they look like twins. They should take some responsibility to curb this crime. If the thieves know the scrap yard will ask questions and call the police ...it may give them pause. Maybe.
the city of augusta needs to crack down on the owners of the recycling businesses..the only reason crack heads are stealing the stuff is because obviously there is a market for copper! if the owners are held responsible for buying stolen goods maybe the thieves will stop stealing it! if a person is caught buying "hot" stolen items on the street the police hauls them off to jail!
Tell you what, Frank: You pay for the replacement of the 57 A/C units and get back to us with how much the cost was...
I know that the mall didn't cause this,,BUT--Why don't they tear the place down and put something there that wouldnt be such an eyesore. Granss and trees would be a big improvement (oops..I forgot about all the trash in the streets at that location)
Maybe someone can come and strip down the rest of the Regency Mall eyesore. Is anyone going to do anything with that property?
The solution for copper theft problems is to require picture ID when recycling and for the recycling owners to be required to take pictures of the copper products being recycled. Law enforcement could do regularly scheduled checks then investigate from their. Oh, another solution: Crack down on the drug dealers!!! The 12th Street area would be an excellent area for a start.
The recycling centers know they're buying stolen copper and don't care. Some actually do their best to obstruct law enforcement efforts. A case should be presented to the Grand Jury to indict the owners of these centers for Theft by Receiving.
I agree the recycling centers are to blame as well. They are buying the copper from the thieves for half price and selling it themselves for full profit. That to me, is an accessory before, during and after the fact...
The recycling centers (junk yards) do require a proof of identity for copper and other precious metals. You have to show your driver's license. I guees their responsibility ends there.
The recycle centers are the whole blame in my eyes. A crack head drives up with a load of copper like it fell out of the sky. They know he just wants a crack rock. They give him $25.00 he moves on. They take the load they just bought for $25.00 and sell it for $5000.00. The lil dumb crack head got his little rock. The recycle center made them a cool $5000.00. Its not like the dumb lil crack head can carry it just anywhere and the people at the recycle center knows its stolen and they know how cheap they can get it for. Easy money.
augusta steel and metal complies 100% with detectives by calling when they see something suspicious come in on a daily basis. the workers have been threatened by the lowlifes that do the stealing. You that are ignorant about recycling may not realize that a good portion of law abiding citizens do recycle large amounts so do electricians and plumbers and other people in the business. There are a few of the recyclers that knowingly deal with stolen goods but not all of them.
Also state law requires a picture ID, a tag number for your car if you drive in, the color, make and model of your car. You have to sign the ticket that states what you brought in and if you state your boss or someone gave the stuff to you, you have to provide their number and that information is then verified. Several have been busted due to those requirements. The bad news is that when they are busted 3 hours later they are back on the street trying to sell more stuff.
1.2 Million dollars is most likely an estimate, but I could understand. Most of the air conditioning units ontop of the mall are bigger than most mobile homes and weigh more. People dont know that you need a crane just to get them to the roof to install. I know these clowns arent pro's but HOW THE H*LL DID THEY GET ON THE ROOF IN THE FIRST PLACE? How many times did they make trips to sell this stuff to the recycling center? and why in the h*ll did the owner of the recycling cernter buy this aluminum and copper over and over without alerting law enforcement?
Good job. We have riff raff like that in Harrisburg and we want them out. www.hongkongaugustaga.org We are going to take out the trash in Harrisburg.
Sure, it's not right for people to strip others' property of valuable stuff. But look on the bright side. These guys are beginning the process of dismantling Regency Mall. In a way, they are community servants.
Forget the trash about alerting law enforcement, getting tag numbers, and drivers liscenes. Not just the dumpy regency mall is being destroyed by these crack heads. Brand new homes are being damaged by these lil crack heads. Contracters are having to burn lights in homes that are now half way finished all over the csra. They are having to burn the lights because scrap metal buyers are buying from these crack heads. Plus every time insurance has to pay a claim, guess who gets to help the insurance companys, yep all of us. If the metal places stop buying it. They will stop tearing up what ever to get the metal. Not all scrap metal places are bad. But enough are that these clowns keep tearing it out for them. You dont buy, they stop tearing it out, very simple, except you like the profit. Giving a crack head $50.00 for several thousand dollars worth of copper is hard to turn down. Unless you think what it would be like to go home and your walls in your home was ripped out and the copper was gone. Then you might feel what people that have been hit by these clowns feel.
gcap.. its some of those same [filtered word]'s like him that caused the mall to be the way it is now to start with. There is no bright side to the scum in this town at all. Except if we were able to buy tickets to watch them while working on the chain gang in pink dresses while we throw tomatoes at them to poke fun of like at a zoo like the animals they are. The city would save some many and make some!!! lol
Sergentmidtown...checked out your site...WOW I wish you the best of luck in trying to preserve your community and in trying to save it from the "rif raf" good luck my friend.
Someone should suggest turning it into a public facility that will house DSS or something of that sort.
so ok, we shut down the scrap yards then the pawn shops, and oh yeah then the flea markets, then what would you suggest tony the maroney?
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