After seeing a surge of metal and construction-material thefts in recent years, 5th District L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger authored a motion recently to call for a crackdown, particularly ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, 2027 Super Bowl, and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
These crimes have also impacted the Santa Clarita Valley, where local detectives recently tracked down a thief to San Bernardino, who failed to appear for his court date Tuesday, according to court records.
“Los Angeles County is preparing to welcome the world, and we must ensure our infrastructure is safe, reliable and resilient,” Barger said in a statement following the unanimous approval of her March 17 motion. “Copper theft is not a low-level crime. It jeopardizes public safety, disrupts essential services, and drains taxpayer resources. This motion brings together the full force of our county and regional partners to crack down on these crimes, strengthen prevention, and protect our communities at a critical moment.”
In the past six years, the costs tied to such thefts were believed to be more than $100 million in the city of Los Angeles alone, according to county officials in a news release.
Barger’s motion called for two main actions to respond to the thefts, in addition to assessing plans and calculating how much the added security will cost: instructing staff to look at “cross-departmental strategies” that improve prevention, detection and rapid response to incidents, including operational protocols, infrastructure hardening measures, resource needs and opportunities for improved data-sharing; and a review of existing tip/reward programs, permitting systems and recycling-oversight structures, that have demonstrated effectiveness in curbing such theft.
Anecdotally, news reports have correlated the rise countywide with the disbandment of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Heavy Metal Task Force, which was aimed specifically at these thefts.
The task force was formed in 2024 and then shut down the following year due to budget constraints, after two dozen operations and a literal ton of copper wire recovered, according to various media reports.
The SCV Sheriff’s Station Detectives Bureau confirmed Wednesday their work on a significant theft case stalled this week after the defendant no-showed for an arraignment and had a warrant issued for his arrest.
Local detectives filed an arrest warrant against Carlos Arturo Estrella, 30, for a pair of charges: grand theft and for possession of stolen property.
Station detectives responded to a theft report from October, which involved the theft from a Lennar project near Valencia’s Commerce Center Drive.
“At approximately (8 a.m.), suspects unknown entered the new housing development site belonging to Lennar homes located at Commerce Center Drive and Middleton Street in Valencia,” according to the detective report. “At this time, suspects unknown entered several vacant properties at the location and cut copper and miscellaneous wiring affixed to various restive air conditioning units. The suspects stole seven total air conditioning units each valued at approximately $4,000 (totaling approximately $28,000).”
The suspect also stole 20 metallic rolls of metal coil valued at $2,000.
The detectives learned of an anti-theft GPS tracker that the units were equipped with, which allowed them to track the goods to an address on Independent Street in San Bernardino.
A warrant-service return, which details the items seized by detectives during the service of a search warrant, indicated all seven air-conditioning units were recovered, visible “in plain view, located in the front yard of the residence,” according to investigators. They also recovered 19 of the 20 metal coils and two cellphones.
