A/C thieves hit ACOP

By RENEE FOX

Tribune Chronicle

WARREN - Another establishment in the city, the Alliance Community Outreach building, has been targeted by thieves for the copper coils in outdoor air conditioning units sometime in the last week, according to a report filed with Warren police on Monday.

The executive director of ACOP, Charlene Allen, told police that the units were behind the building at 2051 Niles Road S.E. and that the theft happened sometime after March 30.

The three York units were damaged badly enough that they will need to be replaced, costing an estimated $10,000, the report states.

On March 4, Alpha and Omega Ministries Pastor Derrick Scott reported that the church's air conditioning unit was mostly removed from their 561 Washington St. N.E. building.

Costing an estimated $3,000 to replace, Scott said he noticed the unit was gone when he followed tire tracks he found suspicious along the side of the building.

Who ever took the metal, Scott said, is unlikely to get more than $100 for it at a scrap yard.

A state law that came into full effect in February created a data base that scrap buyers are required to use to document and photograph each transaction. Scrap dealers are also not allowed to buy scrap from anyone with a reported theft conviction. Police officers can make accounts to access the database and can use it to track transactions and ensure known thieves are not selling stolen items for cash.

The Warren and Niles municipal courts, and the lower courts in Trumbull County do not report their theft convictions to the database.

Other reported incidents of air conditioning units being harvested for their copper coils were reported at Believers Church, 2577 Schenley Ave. N.E.; St. Elijah's, 3480 Ridge Ave. S.E. in Howland; Blessed Sacrament in Warren, 3020 Reeves Road N.E., in February and March.

Total estimates of the damage or the cost to replace the irreparable units in all of these cases soars above $100,000.

Ohio had the highest occurrence of metal theft insurance claims in the nation between 2011 and 2013, according to a 2014 National Insurance Crime Bureau report. Ten percent of the 41,138 claims for copper, aluminum, brass and bronze theft in the nation were filed by Ohioans.

Dan Lazor, facility manager at Blessed Sacrament Parish, said in February, âWho would do this to a church? These are industrial-size units. They are only going to get a fraction to what the church is going to have to spend to replace them.ã

rfox@tribtoday.com