More than $5,000 worth of copper wiring was stolen from street lights along the Lougheed Highway Thursday night or early Friday morning.
Police believe the person or people involved were able to open the street lights at the base of the light poles and pull out the wiring. According to Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jamie Chung the poles that were hit were located along the westbound side of the highway and the wires were live at the time they were stolen.
"They are pretty lucky they didn't get electrocuted," he said. "We think it happened over night."
With the price of metal increasing thefts of wiring and other metals have become more common in the Tri-Cities.
Some municipalities have started to combat the problem. In Port Coquitlam scrap metal dealers are required to check the identification of people selling wiring.
Chung, however, said that unless there are province-wide regulations thieves will go to neighbouring municipalities where regulations do not exist to sell their goods.
"This seems to be a recurring problem," he said. "I worked on a case where people broke into a garage and stole pop cans. I am not surprised that they are stealing copper wire."
Anyone who may have seen something suspicious along the Lougheed Highway late Thursday or early Friday morning should call the Coquitlam RCMP, Chung said.
The Mounties can be reached on the non-emergency line at 604-945-1550. Those who wish to provide information anonymously can do so by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or by going to www.solvecrime.ca.
