Crooks steal copper wires from vacant building causing major damage

MIAMI (WSVN) -- A building owner is in search of the desperate crooks who ripped the copper wiring out of his building and left it damaged.

The crooks cut the copper wires from a live Florida Power and Light electrical box, which killed the power to the building on Northwest 14th Avenue 36th Street. While pulling out wires, the crooks broke a sprinkler on the building's second floor. "It now flooded the building," Peter Fedele said. "This whole first level is destroyed. All the walls are saturated, all the electricals are saturated."

The building has been vacant for weeks, but the crooks found plenty to take. "They knew what they were doing, and they cut all of the copper runs from here, back down to the panel, back out to the vault," Fedele said.

"It's a sad sign of the times, I guess with the economy and people are desperate, so they do desperate things," Fedele said. "So maybe for less than $1,000 of copper they did maybe $300,000 or $400,000 worth of damage to the property."

City of Miami Code Enforcement was the last occupants of the building a few weeks ago.

If you have any information on this crime, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward.

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