‘Crimes of opportunity’: Precious metal thefts, vandalism during pandemic cost City of Hamilton $600K in repairs

The theft of valuable metals from municipal facilities during the pandemic has cost the City of Hamilton more than half a million dollars.

These are obviously crimes of opportunity," said city facilities director Rom D'Angelo. Most of these buildings were closed during COVID, and so we didn't have eyes and ears at those sites because we didn't have staff at those sites."

According to a report presented to city council May 30, theft and vandalism at five city properties resulted in about $600,000 in damages. Those facilities include:

• Dalewood Recreation Centre (June 2020), scrap metal theft: $200,000

• Ryerson Recreation Centre (October 2021), scrap metal theft: $115,000

• Birge Pool (October 2021), scrap metal theft: $250,000

• Central Library (November 2021), vandalism: $28,000

• Provincial Offences Courthouse (November 2021), vandalism: $7,000

In some cases, thefts resulted in permanent destruction" of equipment and impacted the ability for the city to continue in delivering municipal services at the location," the report reads.

The target was ... metals such as copper, brass, mechanical couplings and pipes that had the brass content or the copper content," D'Angelo said.

In some cases, he said, thieves were ripping copper out of live electrical lines. At Dalewood Recreation Centre in Westdale, they went up on the roof and stripped that whole HVAC unit of all its precious metals," he said.

D'Angelo said these are only the five most significant incidents.

The others had low dollar values, under $5,000, but it adds up," he said.

The number of criminal events - which include theft, assault and break and enter, among others - at city facilities skyrocketed during the pandemic, jumping to 90 in 2020 from 46 in 2019.

Incidents increased again in 2021, to 109.

I don't know what's going out there in society, but we're having a tremendous amount of security issues," said Ward 10 Coun. Maria Pearson at a May 30 public works committee meeting.

She said there are ongoing security issues" at Saltfleet Arena, where people are climbing on the roof trying to remove the vent covers and gain access to the building."

Staff said the city is deploying a patrol vehicle to the arena more frequently, and encourages residents to report any unlawful behaviour.

Committee chair Coun. Nrinder Nann asked whether repairs at Birge Pool, where pipes and fixtures were cut and removed, would be completed in time for summer.

The tender has gone out ... and they're working on that project right now," D'Angelo responded. All intents are to have this open before school breaks out for summer."

Public buildings aren't the only targets.

In April 2021, someone removed copper wiring from an HVAC unit and solar panels on the roof of East Hamilton Radio, an electronics store on the corner of Barton Street East and Kenilworth Avenue North.

Store manager Jason Lopez told The Spectator the thief, who had been on the roof when an employee arrived for their 7 a.m. shift, fled, leaving a pile of copper in the alleyway.

According to Hamilton's Posner Metals, scrap copper currently sells for about $5 a pound and brass between $3.20 and $3.80 a pound. Global metal prices, which had been increasing steadily since 2017, saw a surge in 2021.

Kate McCullough is an education reporter at The Spectator. kmccullough@thespec.com