Copper theft in New Brunswick is rampant — and tough to stop

When Jo-Anne Phillips started renovating a Moncton home, thieves broke in overnight and ripped out copper wires and pipes wherever they could find them. Two days later, they came back to steal whatever metal was left behind.

"They couldn't get through the doors, so they broke the glass. They used a screwdriver to back out the three-inch screws we had secured the door with," she said.

Phillips, who renovates rentals in the city, scrambled to install a security system and convinced her insurance company to cover the more than $50,000 bill for the repairs.

Thefts of copper wire are on the rise in New Brunswick and across North America right now. Thieves are cutting and stripping the metal wherever they can find it: in private homes, businesses, electrical substations, construction sites and even directly from utility poles and street lights. 

Codiac RCMP Staff Sgt. Thierry Malenfant said copper-wire theft reports come in almost weekly. 

"It's not an easy task for people or the city to secure everything. It's very problematic for sure," Malenfant said.

The incidents are knocking out internet service for hundreds of customers in the Fredericton area on a regular basis, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

Bell reported 50 thefts from its lines between October and December and started hiring private security. Bell spokesperson Caroline Audet said the utility has reported at least a dozen more incidents in the area since the start of 2023.

N.B. Power is also getting hit, with theft of copper wire and vandalism becoming so common the utility is accounting for the incidents as a regular expense. 

Spokesperson Marc Belliveau said fencing in high-risk areas and monitored security cameras helped drop copper theft incidents to 27 in 2022, down from 92 the previous year, but he said theft remains a concern.

"In some cases, we were able to deter potential thieves before breaking into sites and obtain evidence that led to multiple arrests," Belliveau said in an email. 

Copper prices have climbed back over the past year to upward of $5 per pound, depending on the grade, after spending about eight years at fairly low levels. The metal is also widely available in everything from streetlights to homes. Experts believe the rise in price has encouraged theft.

Ben Stickle set out to find the people behind metal theft, what motivates them and how they operate. He published the results of his research in the book Metal Scrappers and Thieves: Scavenging for Survival and Profit.

"We find that these thieves are generally people who've worked in some type of industry where they understand metal," he said. "Maybe they've been installing metals, or a roofer, or they do heating or air conditioning, something where they understand the value of metal, how to work with it, and how to get money out of it."