Got copper........................make sure you keep it.

This past weekend I showed a very rural property in an adjoining county. It was in a remote location with 9 acres, a fairly new house, barn, pond, fenced and cross-fenced. The proverbial little piece of country paradise.

My buyers loved it......so much we wrote an offer. Since it was a foreclosure and the owner is a faceless bank in another state who has never even seen the property much less lived there, there was no property condition disclosure to review.

Monday morning I get a call from the listing agent: "Jim, there's a problem with my listing you wrote the offer on." "Over the weekend someone broke in and cut all the electrical wires in the attic and also the copper water supply lines underneath."

So now this house has no wiring and no plumbing.

Theft of copper wiring and piping has became a huge problem in this area; even new houses are being targeting.

Scrap copper is selling for about 2 bucks a pound now so it's very simple and easy for thieves to go in, cut all the exposed pipes and wiring in the attic and in crawl spaces, burn the insulation off the electrical wire and make a trip to the scrap metal yards. You can probably steal anywhere from 10 to 30 pounds of copper from a modestly sized house; at 2 bucks a pound that a minimum of $20.00 up to $75 or a hundred dollars.

Plenty for a few six packs, couple of large pizzas, and a bag of dope for a party. In the aftermath there is several thousand dollars worth of damage left behind for homeowners and sellers to deal with.

Any copper thieves in your neck of the woods???