It would be one thing if they just sneaked into your garage and walked off with a pile of copper and left but they don't. That would be just a clean theft.
They tear everything up to get it. They'll rip out plaster and sheetrock, cut studs, joisting and other framing and in general do maybe $35,000 (or even more) worth of damage so they can leave with a few dollars worth of copper to scrap.
The labor involved often means that they're working for under minimum wage because it's often a lot of work destroying everything to dig the copper out of plumbing and wiring.
Personally I think that the penalty for copper theft should be that the thief is handed over to the victim. The victim gets the use of the thief for slave labor for as many hours as the dollar amount of the damage he caused. Twenty five grand's worth of damage means 25,000 hours of doing whatever the victim want's him to do.
Need a new sewer line laid? No sweat. Don't pay some excavator, just hand the thief a shovel. Landscaping? You bet! Hell, rent him out to the neighbors.
I figure that after a few people get caught and wind up in virtual slavery for a few decades the practice would stop.
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