TULSA, Okla. — Two local churches are out hundreds of thousands of dollars after Tulsa police say thieves stole copper from their AC units.
Tyler Hellman is the building manager for Sanctuary Church.
Earlier this week, he noticed some vandalism around the property.
“At first, I recognized that we had a couple of gentlemen with long metal poles knock out some of our cameras and that’s what I first noticed, and then as I was leaving the church later that day, it was a Monday, I recognized that one of our AC units had been bent open,” said Hellman
The next day, Tulsa Police were called to the Central Community Church nearby.
Surveillance video showed the two suspects, later identified as Michael Elkins and Christopher Wroten, leaving that church.
Police say the thieves caused roughly $120,000 in damage to the unit there.
I reached out to Lt. Brad Staggs with the Riverside Street Crimes Unit to learn why thieves are stealing copper.
“Depending on how big and how much copper they have and how much the copper weighs, you can get hundreds of dollars,” said Staggs.
So much damage for so little money is confusing for people like Hellman.
“For something that they may only get $400 bucks out of, they are causing for us, $80,000 in damage and it’s very, very unfortunate,” he said.
Thankfully, Sanctuary Church does have insurance and Hellman said they are so grateful to Tulsa police for their efforts.
“Hats off to them. Absolutely incredible. They have been so incredibly efficient with everything, and they moved very quicky,” said Hellman.
Police believe the thieves sold the copper to local scrap yards.
All in all, officers estimate the damage to be around $200,000 for both churches.
I did some checking and there are specific regulations in place to discourage scrap metal dealers from buying stolen copper.
The Sgt. Craig Johnson Oklahoma Scrap Metal Dealers Act regulates dealers and aims to reduce scrap metal thefts.
Different regulations are within that, and the dealers must report what they are buying.
Also, people selling copper must designate that it is theirs and that it was recovered as part of their business.
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