Man charged with copper theft
Trinity Standard -

TRINITY – A White Rock Estates man was free this week after posting a $5,000 bond on a theft complaint. Robert M. Farber, 38, was arrested Thursday, May 3, on a state jail felony theft of metal charge. According to Pct. 1 Constable Woody Wallace, the arrest came after his office received a tip that two homes in the White Rock Estates subdivision had been hit by copper thieves. “Someone had gone into the air conditioning units and had removed all the copper,” Wallace said. “They basically gutted the units and placed the side panels back up to conceal the theft.” Wallace said at first glance the air conditioners appears to be unharmed but when investigators touched them with their hands, the side panels fell off revealing the interior damage. In addition, the copper piping leading from one of the homes to an outside propane tank also had been stolen. Wallace noted that because of the amount of damage caused by metal thieves, all theft of metal cases are now classified as at least state jail felonies. The constable also issued a warning to all area residents to be on guard for this type of crime, noting that those involved are not always the most intelligent of thieves. He noted in one recent case, someone caused several thousand dollars in damage to steal copper from a lake area subdivision residence and then drove into Trinity to sell it for less than $2. After the suspect was arrested, Wallace said he asked him, “What were you thinking?” and pointed out that he spent more than $2 for the gasoline to drive to and from Trinity to sell the stolen metal.