With copper prices trading at record levels thieves are going to great lengths to steal the valuable metal so they can sell it for quick cash.

Kendall County has seen a significant increase in copper thefts this year, with eight major thefts.

"Generally we have cases of copper theft but it's generally on a small scale, these have been large scale thefts," said Lt. Shad Prichard an investigator with the Kendall County Sheriff's office. "What we're seeing this year is it has increased significantly from last year."

Just this week Prichard said three men have been arrested for the crime.

Friday, 27-year-old Jonathan Beebe of San Antonio, was arrested in connection with several break-in's at a Boerne water well drilling company.

Prichard said Beebe first tried to steal several spools of copper wire from the H.W. Schwope and Sons Water Well Drilling company back in October.  

According to Prichard, Beebe applied for a job at the company one day and then returned the following morning and tried to steal the copper but was chased off by employees.  Beebe was arrested for criminal trespassing.  

On November 23, Beebe allegedly returned to the business and stole some copper and an electric generator which he pawned in San Antonio.

Prichard said Beebe returned to the business a third time on December 2, and was caught in the act by the owner who fired off a couple of warning shots, chasing Beebe off.

When investigators caught up with Beebe they found key pieces of evidence.

"In Beebe's car we found a big cellophane wrapping that said Schwope Drilling that was wrapped around the big spool of wire," Prichard said. "So there was no doubt that he was our guy."

Inside an large locker at the Sheriff's office there are several pieces of evidence from other recent copper thefts including one case where the suspects stole thousands of dollars worth of copper from a cell phone tower.

"Basically they're taking grounding plates and anything made out of copper and they're taking those to recycle plants to sell," Prichard said detailing the cell tower theft. "It's a pretty big deal because that has the potential of interrupting service not to mention the fact that it could actually hurt the suspects trying to take the wire from the tower."

Deputies arrested 54-year-old Gilbert Arenas and 36-year-old Jacob Johnson on Monday.
Prichard said the suspects were posing as a work crew but were caught in the act by a real work crew that showed up at the cell tower.

"The suspects went as far as to put on like a traffic vest to look more official to look like they belong," Prichard said. "After they saw the bolt cutters and some of the other tools they were using they realized something wasn't right and they called the Sheriff's office."

Investigators used a statewide database of scrap metal sales to track the suspects.

The database revealed Arenas had sold $14,000 worth of copper this year.

In addition to catching the suspects with the typical tools of the trade like wire cutters and strippers, investigators also came across something that hadn't seen before, a high voltage detector.

Prichard said it appears Arenas and Johnson were using the device to locate buried power lines which they would dig up to steal the copper.  

"This is a tool that we hadn't seen before and in fact we shared this with our surrounding counties just for them to be on the lookout because we hadn't seen this before," Prichard said.

While the two men have only been charged in the cell phone tower theft, Prichard said Arenas and Johnson are suspects in several more copper thefts.

In what appears to be a new trend, all three suspects live in San Antonio and were driving out to Kendall county to steal the copper and then selling it at scrap metal recyclers in San Antonio.

"In allot of our cases we see that, where San Antonio people come to Boerne and then go back to San Antonio and allot of them understand that it can be difficult to prosecute across county lines but to be honest we've perfected and we're quite good at it now," Prichard said.

The suspects are all facing several counts of copper theft - which is now a mandatory state jail felony.

While some criminals may see this as a victimless crime, Prichard said the thefts are devastating to property owners and businesses.