copper theft, a scourge that is spreading in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais
In recent months, the looting of copper cables has multiplied, under the effect of record prices for the metal. A phenomenon that exasperates companies and town halls, which tries to protect themselves, with difficulty.
On Wednesday May 25, 2022, in the middle of the night, five Orange network cables were cut and then stolen in Lambres-lez-Douai, depriving 2,500 customers of internet connection for several days. In November, the candelabras of the Wattrelos and Tourcoing stadiums were looted. While last August, the municipality of Oxelaëre came to be stripped of its freshly installed public lighting. In the sights of thieves: copper, present in all these installations.
For several months, these acts of vandalism have been increasing in the region. The reason ? Soaring copper prices. In 10 years, the price of the mineral has been multiplied by 6, going from $1,600 per tonne in April 2002 to $10,000 in April 2022. With a sharp rise in the last two years, due to the shortage of raw materials produced by the Covid pandemic, as shown by the curve below.
Copper, taken for its flexible and conductive appearance, is an essential material for the electricity and telecommunications (for cables and wires) or transport (for rails) sectors. Companies working in these fields – Enedis, SNCF or internet operators – are therefore the first to be affected by this phenomenon.
The operator Orange, owner of the historic ADSL network, has seen an upsurge in thefts in recent months. In Hauts-de-France, it is registered “over a hundred” since the beginning of the year. “2.5 times more than in 2021”, he indicates. Incidents observed mainly in the Lille metropolis and in Valenciennes. For its part, SNCF Réseau, responsible for managing rail infrastructure, indicates “actually suffer copper thefts”, without revealing numbers.
We were traumatized. For two months I made rounds at night for fear that they had stolen the rest.
Stéphane Dieusaert, mayor of Oxelaëre
Beyond professionals, this scourge hits town halls hard. Oxelaëre, a rural town of 500 inhabitants in the North, paid the price last August. The looters tore up 27 public lighting poles, taking with them 1.2 km of copper cables. A ialmost new infrastructure, installed a year before to cover the city center as far as Cassel station. “We were traumatized, Let go of the city councilor, Stéphane Dieusaert. For two months I made rounds at night for fear that they had stolen the rest.”
Financially, the damage is heavy for the municipality, whose insurance did not cover external flights. The repair estimate sent by the energy union amounts to 27,500 euros. “We didn’t have the means, says the mayor. So we did everything ourselves, among elected officials.” They bought the cables and installed them, for a sum of around 6,000 euros. Meanwhile, the village remained in the dark for three months.
Same stupor in Wattrelos, in the Lille metropolis. Last October, the city discovered in the fine morning that around thirty candelabras on Boulevard Mauroy and those of the municipal stadium had been looted overnight. The astonishment is all the stronger since the municipality had taken its precautions by installing the access hatches to the cables three meters from the ground. “But that didn’t stop them, they pulled them anyway, laments Henri Gadaut, the deputy mayor. We suspect they are well equipped, with a ladder and a pulley, or something like that.”
In these two cases, in Oxelaëre and Wattrelos, the perpetrators have not been found. Because very often, thieves operate in the middle of the night, out of sight, quickly, and sometimes without leaving a trace behind them. “It was a resident who alerted me on Sunday, around noon, recount Stephane Dieusaert. He only saw one trapdoor in the post that had fallen to the ground, but the others had been put back in place.”
In these circumstances, it is complicated to catch the looters in the act. Or, once the theft has been committed, it then becomes difficult to find their traces. Because the latter would quickly cross the border, to go to Belgium where it is easier to resell stolen goods to unscrupulous scrap dealers.
In France, the law requires metal recycling centers to keep a register of transactions to prevent concealment. Cash payment is also prohibited. “It cools thieves”, finds a scrap metal manager in the North, who says he takes precautions himself to avoid falling into the trap. “If they are people who come frequently, with large quantities, when they are not workers, you can tell yourself that it is theft.”
From petty theft to organized looting, it is complicated to profile thieves. “In my opinion, they are pros, thinks the aedile of Oxelaëre knows. Because they go fast.” Lifting hatches, cutting large cables, sometimes at height, and pulling them over several tens of meters, requires people, tools and a well-honed operating method. “The thieves have a good knowledge of the places and the sector”, confirms Captain Tabaries, communication officer of the gendarmerie, in the columns of the Voix du Nord, last December.
What can be done to fight against this scourge? On the side of the municipalities, we devote ourselves to the D system. The municipality of Oxelaëre must install within a month and a half an iron belt around its electric poles and hatches. “We hope it will discourage them, explains the mayor. But I’m sure they’ll come back, it’s my fear.” In Wattrelos, welds were made on the hatches. “But thieves know how to cut weld points with a grinder”, the deputy mayor despairs.
Privileged target, the SNCF network took the problem head on. Burying of cables, identifiable cables, raising awareness of recycler federations in France and Belgium, rail safety tour of specific areas, ultra mobile, fixed and drone alarm device. The company has deployed a series of measures which have “bearing fruit”. She gives an example “the arrest on Wednesday of a person caught in the act and handed over to the police”.
In these times of shortage of raw materials, copper is no longer the only metal coveted by thieves. In Hauts-de-France, the theft of catalytic converters – made of platinum, palladium and rhodium – on private vehicles would be on the rise. The bait of gain has no limits.