A bronze plaque stolen from the city of Burbank and thousands of pounds of street lighting wire were recovered during a compliance check at a Los Angeles recycling center late last week.
A press release issued by the Los Angeles Police Department states that the department’s Commercial Crime Division’s Metal Theft Unit collaborated with L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian to conduct compliance checks at recycling centers and metal yards throughout the San Fernando Valley last Friday.
The checks turned up a massive amount of wiring; according to LAPD, MTU recovered 290 pounds of street lighting wire stolen from the L.A. Bureau of Street Lighting.
Additionally, a further 290 pounds of street lighting wire were stolen from the L.A. Department of Transportation.
Combined, the 580 pounds of stolen wiring is worth $12,000.
MTU also found 3,366 pounds of copper and aluminum wire worth $24,000 that were stolen from CalTrans during the compliance checks, officials said.
If that wasn’t enough, authorities also recovered a large bronze plaque that was stolen from the city of Burbank; the plaque is worth around $10,000.
Due to the amount of wiring that was recovered and due to the location of the massive bronze plaque, the owner of Tuxford Recycling, Bedros “Peter” Zhamkochian, was arrested for receiving stolen property.
Anyone with information regarding the investigation is asked to call the LAPD’s Commercial Crimes Division (213-486-5920) on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.
During non-business hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-527-3247. Anonymous tips can be submitted to L.A. Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-222-8477 or visiting www.lacrimestoppers.org
A report issued in March indicated that the City of Los Angeles received more than 11,000 calls about street lights going dark during the first three months of this year; the data, compiled by nonprofit news outlet Crosstown L.A., found that there were 3,880 reports of dark streets in March 2024 alone, a 63% jump from the previous March.
L.A. City Councilmember Traci Park, District 11, told Crosstown at the time that the repairs have cost taxpayers $20 million.
It’s not just Los Angeles that’s suffering at the hands of metal thieves.
Metrolink, which operates a system of tracks, signals and gate crossings spanning 540 miles throughout six SoCal counties, has also reported thefts, but rather than breaking into secure facilities that house the wires or power poles, thieves are targeting the wire that runs along the tracks themselves, officials say.
The copper is used to detect train movement, which will then in turn activate the gate arms at railroad crossings. If the system detects damage, the gates “fail-safe” and lower, which could leave drivers stuck on the tracks until crews are able to conduct repairs that cost anywhere between $5,000 and $100,000.
A task force to combat the surge in metal wire thefts was created by the LAPD in partnership with the Bureau of Street Lighting in February.