Atronic Client Shares His Story on Copper Theft

Copper theft, as we have noted many times in our blog, continues to be a problem for homes and businesses in the Kansas City area.

Recently a client of Atronic experienced firsthand the aftermath of what businesses can go through to recover from such a crime. Over the summer his electric company fell victim to thieves vandalizing their AC unit. This resulted in an extensive repair bill, an uncomfortable summer without adequate AC and a large insurance claim.

He recently shared with us a letter he had sent to Chief James Corwin of KCMO in response to the Chief's blog on residential copper theft and gave us permission to post it on our social media sites.

"I read your blog regarding copper thefts from vacant homes, and thought you might be interested in another aspect of this problem that is affecting many businesses in the metropolitan area.

After the company I work for suffered an $18,000 loss due to vandalism of one of our exterior AC condensing units (for the copper, of course), we realized that a simple precaution could possibly have prevented the theft."

He continues by telling the Chief how their company installed an auxiliary contact in the safety switch and then had it wired into their existing Atronic Alarms' security system. The monitoring station would be alerted if the power source was disconnected. With ample room in their security panel they had additional zones to arm their unit.

"Even though our new condensing unit has been placed on top of our building rather than on the ground, where it was, we’re still going to wire it into the security system... especially in light of the number of units that are now being stolen from atop buildings (as was recently reported happening in Topeka)."

There are many solutions now that home and business owners can look into when considering ways to protect their HVAC units. Another system Atronic offers actually monitors the copper within the unit, and any "tilt" that occurs when a perpetrator is tampering with it would alert the monitoring station. In this case, the power does not have to be shut off to trip the alarm.

Video monitoring is an option if business owners want an immediate notification when suspicious activity occurs around a perimeter. With economically priced outdoor IP cameras aimed on your HVAC unit the monitoring station would receive a live video and then can determine if a call to the authorities is warranted.

It is hard enough for business and home owners to watch their bottom line these days without worrying about someone vandalizing their HVAC units or other copper items around their building. Fortunately, there are some economical solutions that can be integrated to help prevent this expensive nuisance.

"Just wish we’d thought of this sooner, before we had to spend half the summer without adequate AC in our KC sales office, while waiting for the replacement equipment. At first, we were just going to eat the repair expense, but then learned that the entire system had to be replaced due to the needed refrigerant upgrade, which made it necessary to make an insurance claim in order to help cover the expense."
In a separate email to Todd Harrison, operations manager of Atronic Alarms.

Atronic Alarms would like to thank Charlie Brooks, Independent Electric, for sharing his experience.