In August, Timothy Davis and Jason Lanier sold 1,761 pounds of copper wire to a metal recycler for $4,560.99. ...more

December 4, 2008

PLANT CITY A homeless man was charged last week after he was accused of yanking copper wire from a Plant City business, causing extensive damage to three air conditioners, according to a police report. ...more

October 22, 2008

From street racers to pornography producers to foreclosure ripoff artists to sellers of scrap metal for recycling, there's a little something for everyone affected by some 30 new state laws that went into effect Oct. 1. ...more

October 4, 2008

The two men caught Sidney Garcia's eye as they strolled onto North Highland Avenue. Garcia was on his porch having a smoke. It was about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, and he had just fed some of the neighborhood's stray cats. ...more

September 19, 2008

Around the 3100 block of North Highland Avenue, a Tampa Police officer found six poles today where copper ground wires were stripped. ...more

September 18, 2008

Two men were arrested this week, accused of stealing more than $11,600 worth of copper wire from a Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative New River substation in August. Timothy Andrew Davis, of 30404 Lynne Drive, already in jail on unrelated drug and grand theft auto charges, is now facing a new charge of grand theft. Pasco deputies say Davis, Jason Gregory Lanier, 27, and a third man who hasn't been arrested yet, stole the 1,037 feet of copper from a secured area that houses generators and transformers sometime between Aug. 14 and Aug. 18. ...more

September 17, 2008

So my Beautiful and Talented Wife tries to print a document for her Healthy Together campaign, a local nonprofit program aimed at promoting healthy choices for Tampans, and her printer refuses to print. She gets an error message on her screen, "Cannot print." Being significantly smarter and techno-savvy than the average bear, my BTW logs off on her iMac, powers up her linked PC, and checks again on the printer. This is where it gets funny. Not just amusing, but really funny in a kind of scary way. ...more

September 2, 2008

Forklifts rumble around the scrap yard, grabbing pieces of metal and plunking them on scales: Will the junk be worth a tank of gas or a cart of groceries? ...more

August 6, 2008

Trashing A/C units for the copper wire inside is so 2007. A metal box bolted to the asphalt behind a Spring Hill medical clinic was stolen some time this weekend. Inside was a smaller box holding radiological medical waste. ...more

June 26, 2008

TAMPA - A three-month investigation into a southeast Polk County copper wire theft trend led to the arrest of two brothers from Kissimmee, deputies announced today. ...more

June 10, 2008