In this letter to the editor, the author replies to our story “Have You Been Hit by Copper Theft?” Radio World welcomes letters to the editor on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.
Paul, while none of the stations I am connected with have suffered this problem (and thankfully, that means I never had anything to do with WJLX), we have been seeing an upswing here in L.A. of a type of copper theft that no one would have originally suspected: Public EV charging stations are having their cables cut right at the control box.
It seems to be confined to stations in parking lots (as opposed on on-street), probably to give the thieves some degree of cover.
They also appear to know that these is no live current in those cables until the customer authorizes the control box via credit card, app, or RFID tag. But at somewhere between six and ten feet in length, a cable heavy enough to handle 220VAC has an amount of copper which is apparently worth stealing.
— K.M. Richards, K.M. Richards Programming Services, Los Angeles, Calif.
[Related: “Letter: Copper Thieves Love a Remote Tower Site“]
