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The Copper Thief That Almost Got Away
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Talia Kennedy
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Last Updated on September, 26 2007 at 05:25 PM
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Talia Kennedy's story won UCB's Graduate School of Journalism's 2008 Robert Whittington Award for Exceptional Reporting.
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Copper's Popular With Petty Thieves
When police said they wouldn’t investigate a theft at his Temescal locksmith shop last week, owner Randall Reed decided he would.
Mr. Reed, who owns Reed Brothers Security on Telegraph Avenue, arrived at work on September 18 to find $800 worth of copper wire missing. He had left the wire secured to a welder, and locked with a chain and padlock in one of the store’s trucks.
“It was really heavy, finely stranded copper,” he says of the $4-per-foot, gauge-two wire that's used in steel melting processes.
Mr. Reed knew that thieves typically steal such wire to sell it to recycling plants. As the store’s logo was imprinted on the wire, he figured that there was a good chance he’d be able to track it down. He notified local recyclers of the theft, and sure enough, someone from Custom Alloy Scrap Sales on Peralta Street called him later the same morning: they had his copper.
Custom Alloy requires recyclers to present a driver’s license and to have a photograph taken of them and of the product they are selling, so Reed obtained copies of the driver’s license of a man by the name of Michael Givens. The photos showed a second person, a homeless man named Sonny, who had sold the copper wire. He made all of $64.
At Custom Alloy’s request, Mr. Givens went to Reed Security Brothers, where he told Mr. Reed that he’d helped Sonny sell the wire, but he had not known that the copper was stolen. Mr. Givens also told Mr. Reed that Sonny could be located at another local recycling plant.
It was then that Mr. Reed called the OPD to report the theft. He had a copy of Mr. Givens’ driver’s license, a photo of Sonny, and a confession. That was enough for the police to investigate his case, he felt. But the officer who arrived that afternoon didn’t think so. He told him to have Mr. Givens or Sonny call the OPD, says Mr. Reed. Even though he had reported the case, the officer said the matter would likely not be investigated.
Frustrated, Mr. Reed drove to the place Mr. Givens said Sonny could be found. Recognizing him from the photo taken at Custom Alloy, Mr. Reed pulled up next to Sonny , who was at his usual street corner. He asked him if he'd taken the copper. Sonny said he had.
“He readily admitted to stealing our stuff,” Mr. Reed says. “He said that he was sorry it was going to cost us so much, and that he would not steal from our trucks again.”
Still perturbed by the OPD’s lack of interest in pursuing the case, Mr. Reed sent an e-mail describing his saga to several Internet lists for Oakland business owners.
“[Sonny] was easy to find. He readily admitted to the theft. The police department says that they probably will not pursue it,” Mr. Reed wrote in the e-mail. “He knew that there is no consequence to this kind of theft! And the Oakland Police confirmed it.”
There’s more to the story. It turns out that Mr. Givens’ didn’t start his career in the recycling business. Lt. Mike Yoell, a member of the Oakland Police Department’s theft unit who has since reviewed this case, confirmed that Mr. Givens worked for the OPD as a police officer for eight years before he was terminated more than 15 years ago. Mr. Givens could not be contacted to comment for this story. He had told Mr. Reed that his cell phone was stolen a few days before the copper theft, and that he could not afford to purchase a new one. There isn’t any phone number listed under his name either.
The e-mail reached about a thousand businesspeople, Mr. Reed says. And many of them complained about the OPD’s reluctance to investigate the case.
The correspondence eventually made its way to the OPD, and about 30 hours after the theft, an officer contacted Mr. Reed to tell him the police department had decided to investigate the case. “Normally, without identification of the guy, the report would just be filed,” says Lt. Yoell, adding that because the OPD is “overwhelmed and understaffed,” it is difficult to follow up on petty-theft cases.
Despite his initial frustration, Mr. Reed says he doesn’t blame the OPD for originally declining to look into the theft. He holds the Oakland City Council and other upper City staff managers responsible for withholding funding from law enforcement, thereby forcing an understaffed police force to investigate “the big stuff that’s hard to pursue, and letting the little stuff go rampant.”
Oakland is full of residents who would agree with Mr. Reed. There were over 4,000 burglaries in Oakland last year, Lt. Yoell says, and with just one theft investigator per police beat, it can be difficult for the police to solve many of the cases. He says that while several police academy classes are under way and more officers will be hired, the City is not funding the police department in a manner that satisfactorily supports it.
“We’re constantly asking for more investigators. When we have the ability to staff detectives, we will look into [more cases],” he says. “It’s up to the City and what efforts they’ll take.”
So far, the City’s efforts aren’t impressing Mr. Reed. Several calls to the office of Councilmember Jane Brunner, who represents the district where Mr. Reed’s shop is, were not immediately returned Wednesday.
“Oakland’s played that game for decades,” Mr. Reed says. “City Council members don’t come out and take crime reports. If every City Council member had to go out and take crime reports for two weeks, that would probably change.” |
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OAKLAND
ZOMBIE STORY
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