UDOT says that they have spent in upwards of $200,000 repairing freeway streetlights, freeway cameras and message signs by replacing the copper wire that thieves had stripped out of them. Utah Department of Transportation says that since October of last year, 20 incidents of copper theft have been found in the Salt Lake area.
Areas along Interstate 80, I-215 and Legacy Parkway have been targeted.
UDOT says that the thieves will pry off the cable box at the base of a streetlight and access the cable from there. They will proceed to cut the cable and run it out using a vehicle.
"We suspect they are cutting the wire during the daytime, coming back at night hooking the wire on a truck and just towing it out, hundreds of feet," says UDOT spokesperson, Tania Mashburn.
Mashburn says the thieves will take the copper and cash it in at a scrap metal shop. She says they get about 300 feet of cable at a time -- equivalent of about $300.
Mashburn says at that rate of exchange it is "not even worth the risk," because of the significant consequences that can result. She says that a lot of times the wires are live and they carry about four times as much voltage than a home wall socket.
Mashburn says that the cost burdens them to replace it, and in turn will affect what resident have to pay in taxes. She says that not only is it an expensive burden, but a public safety issue as well when areas of freeway are suddenly darkened at night.
UDOT asks if anyone saw someone
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