Winnipeg woman warning homeowners after copper stolen from AC unit

A Winnipeg woman is losing her cool after she says the copper was stolen from the air conditioning unit at her home.

Marcie Naismith arrived at her St. James home last week to find it unusually humid and warm. Her family didn’t understand what went wrong — was it the furnace or the AC?

A technician came to inspect the units and found that the copper tubing connecting the AC unit to the house was stolen.

“I panicked, I was mad, I was angry, I was upset,” Naismith said. “I have a family of five and it’s hot.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I panicked, I was mad, I was angry, I was upset," Naismith said. "I have a family of five and it's hot."

Naismith said she felt violated knowing someone came so close to her home to steal something.

“It puts you on edge. For someone like me it makes you worry a lot, you get nauseated sometimes. We’re completely open here because we’re not fenced off. Any time for any reason there’s people walking back and forth between these buildings,” she said.

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Global News spoke to several furnace and air conditioning companies in Winnipeg and found this has been a problem for a handful of customers.

Tyler Whitlaw, President of the On-Time Group said it’s dangerous for people to try to take the piping.

“They’re taking the refrigeration lines usually and leave the wires because they’re worried about power and they don’t know what they’re doing and actually refrigeration lines are more dangerous to cut because they can be burned by the chemicals,” he said.

Scrap metal places in Winnipeg purchase copper pipe for $3/pound.

Naismith questions why it’s even worth it for the thieves when they leave behind so much damage.

“We were quoted about $1,200 to fix the issue and the technician I spoke to said they’re going to get about ten dollars for the copper,” she said. “I’m a big believer in karma and I hope karma comes to get them.”

Winnipeg Police Service Const. Jay Murray said the copper crime is one of the side effects of the city’s drug problem.

“It’s a crime of opportunity. There ‘s a lot of individuals just stealing this copper for quick profit. We can tribute some of this to methamphetamine, it’s a very strong drug that individuals are just looking for their next high and some quick money but it is an issue we’ve seen in Winnipeg for some time,” he said.

Murray said it’s a tricky crime to prevent but suggests people arm their homes with surveillance cameras to deter criminals and also make it easier to catch them after a crime.

“One of the things that causes issues for law enforcement in tackling this problem is the fact that copper can be very hard to trace,” he said. “It’s not like it has a serial number and we can quickly find the source of that copper.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "One of the things that causes issues for law enforcement in tackling this problem is the fact that copper can be very hard to trace," he said. "It's not like it has a serial number and we can quickly find the source of that copper."

In 2017 police warned how homes under construction had become easy targets for thieves.

In May, 2017, police caught a pair of suspects attempting to get away with copper piping in a new neighbourhood in North East Winnipeg.