Man burned while attempting theft of copper wire

A 45-year-old man, apparently trying to steal copper wiring from a vacant Sand Island warehouse, suffered electrical burns and was in critical condition Thursday, officials said.

The incident happened about 2 a.m. at a warehouse owned by Roy Yee at 290 Sand Island Access Road.

Yee said the warehouse has been stripped off all copper wiring and piping by thieves in the past three months.

The suspect was apparently trying to take about 10 feet of wiring connecting the building’s disconnect switch to Hawaiian Electric’s transformer Thursday, Yee said.

Yee said the man’s burnt shirt, part of his baseball cap and a flashlight were recovered from the scene.

The man, identified only as Jay, remained in critical condition last night at Straub Clinic & Hospital, a spokeswoman said.

Darren Pai, Hawaiian Electric Co. spokesman, said the case has been turned over to the police as a possible copper theft case. Pai said the only customer to lose electrical power because of the incident was the warehouse.

Bruce Iverson, marketing and development director at Reynolds Recycling, said that as copper prices rise, so do copper thefts and attempted thefts.

In early 2009, when the price of the base metal bottomed out, recyclers were offering 60 cents a pound. But today copper wire fetches $3 a pound, back up to 2006-08 prices.

"Whenever the price comes up, things become more interesting," said Iverson. "So when we were buying at 60 cents a pound, it wasn’t even worth the risk."

Recent cases show the risk can be great.

On Jan. 5, a 33-year-old man was taken to Straub Clinic & Hospital in critical condition with burns after he tried to break into a transformer vault near the former Hard Rock Cafe site in McCully.

In 2007, a man died after falling from a utility pole when he was allegedly trying to steal copper wiring on Nimitz Highway between Rodgers Boulevard and Camp Catlin Road.

The thefts come at a cost to local governments, utilities and private businesses.

Two-thirds of Nimitz Highway under the viaduct is without functioning street lights after thieves stole 40,000 feet of copper wiring beginning in November.

Last month, a man stole the copper rain gutters at Waianae Elementary School, and in April three men were caught in Maili with 400 pounds of copper wiring allegedly stripped from a vacant building owned by Maili Telecom.

On Hawaii island, several thefts of heavy-gauge copper cable valued at $50,000 from a wind farm in Kau were reported in July.

In 2006 and 2007, when recyclers were paying $3 a pound, copper thefts on Oahu were rampant and police conducted a three-month copper theft investigation that led to numerous arrests and the passage of a specific copper anti-theft law.

In 2007, Hawaiian Electric Co. alone had 10 incidents of copper theft, and losses were in the tens of thousands of dollars. And in 2006, HECO reported 22 incidents and losses in the hundreds of thousands.

Iverson said Hawaii’s stringent copper theft law, passed in 2007, has slowed copper thefts because it makes it easier for police to track the thieves.