As luck would have it, thieves stripping copper wires from Kingswood Elementary last weekend managed to cut the juice to the school's surveillance system.
"Lucky for them," lamented Robert Lewis, scheduling supervisor for San Juan Unified School District's maintenance and operations department. "Not our luck."
Left with no leads and a $3,500 bill, San Juan officials can only brace for the next in a series of copper thefts that has cost the district almost $150,000 in about a month.
At $3 a foot, the copper electrical wiring is an enticing commodity for thieves who have risked electrocution in the wee hours of the morning for their valuable loot. So far this summer, vandals have targeted five campuses.
El Camino High School was their first and most lucrative hit: 2,400 feet of copper that could have fetched up to $7,200 at scrap metal yards.
That job probably took about four hours and at least two people, given the weight of the metal, estimates Bob Davis, director of maintenance and operations for San Juan Unified. The theft cost the district $40,000 in replacement parts and labor, Davis said.
Kingswood was the latest theft, and the least damaging. Each of the four previous thefts cost the San Juan district at least $30,000.
District officials speculate that the thefts are symptoms of a bad economy that has people desperate. But the district – which made $6 million in budget cuts this spring – is desperate too, officials said.
"With the budget we're faced with, it's killing us," Davis said of the thefts. "That pill gets bigger and bigger to swallow."
In addition to spending more than $150,000 since January to clean up after copper thefts, San Juan Unified has burned through almost $20,000 to beef up security patrols of their campuses.
Normally, that $20,000 would last the whole year, covering security over long weekends and holidays. Now, Lewis' department has asked the district's chief financial officer to add an additional $35,000 to that account.
"I know it sounds kind of corny, but they're actually stealing from the kids," Davis said.
Other districts in the area haven't been hit as hard.
Elk Grove Unified had its first copper theft in several months over the weekend at Sierra Enterprise Elementary; the job cost the district just under $20,000, according to a district spokeswoman.
Sacramento City Unified has seen a "remarkably" calm summer in terms of vandalism, said Vince Matranga, head of security for the district.
This spring, the district struggled with a series of thefts targeting HVAC units for metal coils inside. The scrap metal didn't generate much money for the thieves, but the damage forced the district to replace entire HVAC units at up to $4,000 apiece.
That subsided after Sacramento police arrested three thieves in the act at John Sloat Elementary, Matranga said.
"The key is, you have to start making arrests," he said. "If you don't start making arrests, the problem will continue."
Call The Bee's Kim Minugh, (916) 321-1038.
