MACON, Ga. — One Macon real estate agent is thankful that deputies arrested a man charged with stealing copper and causing $3 million in damage to a vacant building.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office arrested Daniel Clayton Hobbs from Lizella last Friday. Hobbs is charged with two counts of burglary in the second degree.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy estimated that copper theft cost businesses about $1 billion a year.
Gary Bechtel with Bob Lewis & Associates said a bank foreclosed on a former orthopedic building on Riverside Park Boulevard last summer. Then in February, they noticed that someone had broken in.
"They basically destroyed all the electrical- they cut off some of the compressional lines that had copper, so I mean it's — it's fairly extensive," Bechtel said.
He said they estimate the damage comes out to $3 million, and he believes the culprit got away with only a fraction of that in copper.
"It couldn't have been more than a couple hundred pounds. I mean, at most. So a $1,000," Bechtel said.
The building, which is 42,000 square feet and on almost 16 acres was broken into multiple more times, Bechtel said.
He said the first time the thief cut power to the security cameras, so they've added more cameras that work without power. He said there's no real damage done to the building's outside, but he hopes the damage inside doesn't hold anyone back from purchasing the building.
"Because in many cases, the vandals have already done some of the demolition work that might be necessary for a complete renovation," he said.
He said he's very thankful for the swift work the Bibb County Sheriff's Office did in arresting Hobbs.
Chip Koplin with Radius Recycling in Macon said the cost of copper isn't very high.
"Right now, the rate for copper is in between $3.50 and $4.00 per pound," Koplin said.
He said his business, like many recyclers, work hard to detect stolen materials before people sell them.
"What's really helpful is a lot of utilities or a lot of municipalities sometimes stamp their, the name of their organization on there. And then if a recycler sees that come in, they're alerted that this is a very potentially stolen material," Koplin said.
He said they work with local law enforcement closely to find out when copper or other metals get stolen from businesses, so they can keep an eye out for it. They also browse this website, which law enforcement uses that alert people in a 100-mile radius of where significant thefts happened.
This case is still under investigation by the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.