TULSA, Okla — Sine Lake, co-owner of Big Al’s Healthy Foods in midtown Tulsa, likes to sing along to the music while making lunches at the popular eatery.
But on the day 2 News visited, her tunes are mixed with a little frustration.
“We’ll be fine, one way or another,” she told us.
Thieves stole the evaporator coil and all the copper from the air conditioner, leaving the kitchen without cold air. The incident happened two weeks ago, but just got word from a repair person on Friday that the thief had climbed on the roof and stripped the copper.
Just last summer, thieves cut the powerlines near the weather head.
“Stole, maybe, $50 worth of copper and it cost us like $1000 to repair it,” said Lake.
Because of the incident last summer, they still haven’t recovered financially. While they intended to install cameras, they just couldn’t afford them. Now, this happened.
“We will be paying for this for years now because we are a small business,” she said. “We don’t have a ton of money.”
2 News asked for open records for Tulsa copper-related thefts after thousands of dollars in similar damage at churches. In April, we covered stories at North Peoria Church of Christ and Praise Center Family Church and Iglesias Piedra Angular Church in June.
Records show at least 20 copper thefts since January.
Riverparks is one location hit often by thieves. In February, they were targeted again. Officials say despite replacing a lot of the lights with aluminum instead of copper, thieves still damage them in order to find out what’s inside.
Thankfully, at Big Al’s, the air conditioner in the dining area still works for customers. However, because it’s August, for kitchen staff safety, they are temporarily closing early, at 2 p.m.
Tulsa police say many businesses don’t have cameras on the roof, making it difficult to determine a suspect or whether these cases are related.
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