Story posted 2011.05.15 at 05:13 PM EDT
Police say metal theft is on the rise in metro Atlanta.
Recently, thieves stole copper from an apartment complex in Clarkston, leaving nearly two dozen renters without air conditioning.
The crooks didn't tamper with the AC units outside the off the building, but instead broke in a basement door to get what they were after.
Channel 2's Erica Byfield found the basement doors at the southern place apartments now reinforced with strips of wood.
"This is like the first time this has ever happened," Yolanda Edley said.
Edley is hopeful this will be enough to keep the copper thieves out.
She told Byfield her mother realized something was wrong last week when their air conditioning didn't work.
"She called the maintenance people and the people were like ‘I'm sorry. Didn't anyone tell you, but somebody came in last night and took copper wire from the AC units out of several apartments,'" Edley said.
A Clarkston police detective said within two days someone stole hundreds of feet of copper from two buildings, leaving more than 20 families without air.
"I think it was like 90 something those days, it was extremely hot," Edley said.
"It was hot. It was real hot. We have to go out and buy fans, you know, because it was so hot," Genneda Johnson said.
For her family, the theft was compounded when they noticed something else was missing.
"They stole the cable boxes too," Johnson said.
She's counting on the promise of increased patrols from police to keep this from happening again.
"We live here. This (is) our home. We want to live comfortable. It's not good, it's not good at all. I just hope they catch the person that is doing this," Johnson said.
Police detectives said those increased patrol have led to a number of stops, but so far they've not found the people responsible for the copper thefts.
Story posted 2011.05.15 at 05:13 PM EDT
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