Police stay thieves tried to steal this copper pipe from the Monterey Recreation Centre underground parking lot. Photo Credit: Oak Bay police.
Oak Bay police say an attempted copper theft at the Monterey Recreation Centre on Aug. 24 likely caused a significant amount of noise.
Police were called to the recreation centre at 1442 Monterey Avenue at 6 a.m. on Aug. 24 after staff reported the incident. Once they arrived, police found a large 3″ (eight centimetre) diameter, 100-foot (31 metre) long copper pipe on the ground of the underground parking lot.
Police stay thieves tried to steal this copper pipe from the Monterey Recreation Centre underground parking lot. Photo Credit: Oak Bay police.
According to police, the pipe had been carefully taken down as the metal supports were unscrewed. Police said the suspects also used a commercial-style ratchet strap to secure a shorter piece of the piping that branched out from the main copper pipe.
Oak Bay police also said appears the suspects used a vehicle to pull on the ratchet strap, which caused a large section of the pipe to fall to the ground, which would have caused a loud noise.
Police took the hardware from the ratchet strap along with a discarded exacto knife for further investigation. The entire section of the copper pipe was intact as the suspects were unable to remove the large pipe from the area.
Alexa Huffman
