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Mountain View police are investigating the theft of copper wire ripped from several electrical boxes in the parking lot of Shoreline Amphitheatre over the weekend.
On Monday morning, a groundskeeper called police after discovering a vandalized electrical junction box at the base of a light pole in the parking lot, Mountain View police spokesperson Liz Wylie said.
Police responded and found that nearly all of the 21 junction boxes at the bases of the light poles in the parking lot were damaged, Wylie said. Copper wire had been removed from the boxes.
She said the theft appears to have occurred sometime between Friday night and Monday morning.
Copper wire theft increases when the metal’s value rises, Wylie said. The current going rate for copper is $2.95 per pound, she said.
Wylie estimated the value of the stolen wiring at about $1,000 and said repairing the lighting system would cost an additional $30,000.
A spokesperson for Shoreline Amphitheatre was not immediately available for comment.
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call Mountain View police at (650) 903-6344.
“On Monday morning, a groundskeeper…”
What is the point of paying a groundskeeper who only works weekdays? If Shoreline cannot afford minimal security, at least have the groundskeeper work the weekends too. This probably could have been avoided with the most basic of rent-a-cops service; even they are a big enough deterrent for most criminals.
I’ll bet a dollar to donuts it was some illegals. It sickens me that my
town has to deal with this.
So you have been reading about the budget, right? So you are saying there should be a 24 hour a day security guard to drive around the park? They do have rangers out there during the day. So let’s increase the budget? If you’re going to do that we should be hiring more police officers that might actually catch someone and not just deter.
In regards to Mr. DePortum’s comment…
It is very interesting how people seem to feel so free to make prejudice comments towards a specific group hiding behind anonymity. In order to reduce deindividuation, the Mountain View Voice should require people to identify themselves to be able to post their comments. What makes you think that it was an immigrant? I wonder if you would make the same comments being a registered user.
Rent-a-cop at minimum wage 24/7 = $70K/year
Fixing stolen wires = $30K/incident
$30K every 5 years or however often this happens seems like the way to go.
A lot of copper comes from Chile. With the recent earthquake it’s probably going to be more scarce and its price will be going up.
Stolen wires goes from once/5years to 3/year when no one there to watch the chicken coop. YOU have to put up deterrent now that some one can make a easy $1,000.
“So you have been reading about the budget, right? So you are saying there should be a 24 hour a day security guard to drive around the park? They do have rangers out there during the day. So let’s increase the budget? If you’re going to do that we should be hiring more police officers that might actually catch someone and not just deter.”
Have I been reading about the budget? Wow… so whose budget are you speaking of? Shorelines? The county? The state?
If you had actually read my original post I stated they should increase the hours of the already hired groundskeeper. Nowhere did I say they should hire a 24/7 security guard. Also, police already cruise around shoreline at night, I know this because I frequently play basketball @ the Microsoft courts. Police cannot just stake out places like shoreline park “hoping” to catch criminals.
“Rent-a-cop at minimum wage 24/7 = $70K/year
Fixing stolen wires = $30K/incident
$30K every 5 years or however often this happens seems like the way to go.”
Apparently economics is not your forte. They already have the payroll of a groundskeeper(s), adding more hours is possible without spiking the budget they set for maintenance or what have you. Hiring security guard(s) to work the weekends and/or nights would not be a 24/7 job. So that automatically nulls your exaggerated price point you got there.