Local News

PASADENA, Md. (AP) ― Firefighters weren't sure what was causing the smoke rising from a former discount store in this Baltimore suburb.

The place had been abandoned for years, the interior stripped to the walls.

When they got inside July 2, they found only one thing burning: a 41-year-old man who became engulfed in flames and died after cutting through a high-voltage line.

Sean Phelps became another ghastly casualty of what authorities say is a deadly national trend: copper wiring thefts.

High copper prices in recent years have thieves breaking into power plants and abandoned factories to rip out the wiring. Vandals are even stealing from gravesites.

There is no national count of people killed in copper theft attempts, but news accounts put the death toll at about two dozen over the past 12 months.

Phelps, a father of nine and a former long-haul trucker who family members say was trying to scavenge scrap metal to help support his family, was found alone in the empty building, next to a set of bolt cutters, a police scanner and the store's lone remaining electrical panel. He wrongly assumed the power would be off, authorities say.

When Phelps cut the wire carrying at least 220 volts, he was hit with a powerful electrical arc, similar to what happens when lightning strikes or a transformer blows.

Most copper thefts are nuisances, such as a recent rash at a Maryland youth baseball park that has left Little Leaguers without lights for night games.

But increasingly, thieves are turning to the highest-quality sources of copper -- power substations, utility poles and electrical boxes -- and turning over the easy-to-recycle wiring to scrap dealers.

The thefts are profitable for people who don't get hurt. But the practice of snipping copper wires can be so dangerous utility workers refer to it as "a dance with the devil."

Copper prices have shot up almost fourfold in the past decade, an increase attributed to rising demand from Asia. Copper now trades on financial markets for $3.65 a pound, though recyclers get less.

The metal is hard to trace and retains its value well when recycled, so thieves are even targeting copper alloys such as brass.

Pipes and air conditioners have been stripped from homes and churches. California farmers have had irrigation machinery plucked. In Guam, 34 brass panels on a World War II memorial were stripped earlier this month. Thieves last year stole $10,000 worth of brass toilet flush valves from parks around Honolulu.

Police in Maryland, Ohio and Wisconsin say copper urns or brass plates have vanished from cemeteries.

The best places to steal copper, though, are also the most dangerous -- electric boxes, utility poles and even power stations.

"They don't realize how much danger they're putting themselves in for $3 a pound," said Betty Kennedy, a spokeswoman for Atlantic City Electric in New Jersey, where a man was hospitalized last month with severe burns on his arms after police say he tried to steal copper wire from a substation in Millville, N.J.

Copper thefts have been on the rise since at least 2004. The price spiked at about $4 a pound last summer and remains high, said Kenneth Geremia of the New York-based industry group Copper Development Association.

"The thefts have been going up for a couple of years now as the price is up," Geremia said. "There have always been thefts of copper because it is so easily recyclable. There's a huge industry for it. Unfortunately, when you have a basic commodity like that, you don't know who's using it or who may have stolen it."

In Ohio, a man was electrocuted Monday when he tried to take down a power line to sell the copper. Sheriff's deputies found the man tangled in the line, and utility workers had to remove the body.

Even reports of the dangers of stealing copper wire haven't stopped attempts.

In Shelby County, Ind., a man was found dead last month in a soybean field in rural Flat Rock. David Hoagland had burns on his arms and legs, and died of electric shock. Police say he died cutting copper wire, but Hoagland's death didn't scare burglars away.

"We had within the last week the same energy substation hit twice," said Chief Deputy David Tilford of the Shelby County sheriff's department.

And in Maryland, less than two weeks after Phelps' death, a youth baseball park near his home had its electrical boxes that light the fields robbed of wire. Thieves hit three times in a week.

Phelps wasn't a criminal, just a working-class man always looking to make a buck for his family, relatives say.

"Any odd jobs he could do, he wanted to do them," said Phelps' mother-in-law, Carol Hyman. "The last message I had from him, he called and said, 'Momma, anything you need me to do, I'll do it.' He cleared my basement out. Was going to put a new roof on. He could do any odd jobs."

Phelps also sold scrap metal, though Hyman and Phelps' widow, Michele Phelps, said they didn't know that he stole it.

"He's not a thief. That's not who he is," Mrs. Phelps insisted, trying to dress two crying young daughters one recent morning.

The apartment held a few floral arrangements friends sent after Phelps died, but the flowers were mostly dead two weeks after Phelps died. On the kitchen table sat a program from Lebanon Calvary Baptist Church in Baltimore, which the family attended and where Phelps was eulogized. A few videos for the kids sat in the living room, along with a PlayStation 2 Phelps liked to use in his free time.

"He was just real friendly. Easy to talk to," said Mrs. Phelps, who met her husband while both worked at a warehouse. She was a clerk; he worked in quality assurance. Both had children from previous relationships, then had five together. Phelps had a total of nine children, ages 2 to 23.

Phelps quit the warehouse six years ago to become a long-haul trucker to make more money, but his absences strained the family.

Michele Phelps asked him to give up the long-distance routes in favor of local trucking jobs, plus some odd jobs to make ends meet.

"It was getting hard" not having his help with the kids, Michele Phelps said.

So Sean Phelps gave up the long routes and stayed closer to home, but times were tough. He sold scrap metal to help pay the bills, asking family members if they had any scrap he could take off their hands.

Hyman says she doesn't know why her son-in-law was in the abandoned store that day, or why he tried to steal the copper.

Whatever he did, he did to help his children, she says.

"He was a family man," Hyman said. "He was a daddy."

The deaths of Phelps and others have prompted 20 states, but not Maryland, to pass laws this year to try to slow the trend.

Much of the attention has gone to metal recyclers, who in many places could buy scrap metal without asking where it came from.

Even if someone came in with a truckload of copper wiring stamped with a power company's name on it, some dealers would buy it, officials say.

After several people were electrocuted in Arkansas, the state legislature passed a bill this year requiring photo IDs and addresses for people selling scrap metal other than soda cans. That law takes effect at the end of this month, said Arkansas Rep. Bruce Maloch, who sponsored the bill.

"We've had too many in our state killed," Maloch said. "They'll try to get that bottom wire and they'll end up getting hold of a hot wire. The real problem is catching these people. They're going to scrap dealers, and we had no records."

Scrap metal recyclers aren't necessarily in favor of such laws, though. Many scrap metal recyclers already ask for identification.

"I always ask for ID, to cover myself. I caught a guy last week. If they ask why I need ID, I say, 'To make sure it's not stolen,"' said John Clouse, owner of Junkman Recycling in Bullhead City, Ariz. But Clouse opposes a law about scrap metal recycling: "We've got too many laws already."

An industry group representing scrap dealers -- the Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries -- does not oppose all identification laws, but the group does oppose requirements that dealers hold on to metal scrap for a certain period to make sure it's not stolen.

Some utilities aren't waiting for scrap dealers and lawmakers to agree to a solution.

Kentucky Utilities, based in Lexington, Ky., started using a new type of copper wiring last year. The company uses a copper weld, not solid copper, in hopes of deterring thieves.

Spokesman Cliff Feltham said the change hasn't deterred copper robbers so far -- one man died and two were seriously injured in theft attempts at Kentucky Utilities properties since the change -- but Feltham noted that copper wiring thieves are already desperate to try stealing it despite the risk.

"We're just befuddled whether that thought process goes through their heads," said Feltham, who called copper wiring thefts "a dance with the devil."

Given the continued thefts, Feltham said his company still favors an identification law for recyclers.

"When something doesn't appear right, they have an obligation to say something -- 'Hey, this guy has a lot of copper, I wonder where he got it?"' Feltham said.

But Clouse, the scrap dealer, said he doubts that anything can be done to stop the problem. "As long as the prices are high," he said, "this is going to happen."

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)