Thursday, March 31, 2011

Rustlers turn from cattle to copper

Arizona ranchers are dealing with a new type of "rustling." More than a century ago, it was cattle rustling. Now, ranchers see an incredible rash of copper thefts. "We are constantly encountering problems with people coming in and stealing the copper wire from the irrigation pumps," said Jeanette Fish of the Maricopa County Farm Bureau. "Down in the Gila Bend area, in the Paloma Irrigation District, they've had 19 pumps stripped in the last four weeks,." The average cost to repair each pump is $10,000 to $12,000, she said. "For the person who's doing theft, they steal that and they get maybe 65 or 70 pounds of copper, $280 or less if they're going through a back door criminal operation." A $10,000 reward is being offered to catch the copper thieves, said Fish...more

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