Copper Thief Guts Local Business

were called to a local business Monday where someone had stolen about 1,000 feet of copper wire.

An employee of a maintenance company that works on the grounds of CB Richard Ellis, 18801 S. Oak Park Ave. in , called the cops around 10 a.m. to report the theft.

The maintenance crew had last been at the business on Nov. 16 and when members returned Monday, they noticed that the locking mechanism and strike plate on the south side of the door had been tampered with, the report said.

The door leads to the building's electrical room. Inside, someone had opened a green transformer box and taken copper wires and rods. They had also removed the doors of two breaker boxes which had been gutted of their copper.

"It appeared as if the offender then moved toward the north wall and created two large holes in the drywall to gain entry into the main warehouse," the report said. "Once inside the warehouse, the offender removed the doors from four more breaker boxes, cut the ends of the copper wires and removed them.

Police said they believed the person then opened the overhead loading dock door and drove a vehicle inside the warehouse, possibly to help move the wire.

The case remained under investigation Wednesday. 

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