{"id":489970,"date":"2026-10-09T03:50:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T03:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/489970\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T03:50:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T03:50:43","slug":"copper-wire-theft-costing-sacramento-county-agriculture-thousands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/489970\/","title":{"rendered":"Copper wire theft costing Sacramento County agriculture thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Maricela<\/a>SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\n

Copper wire theft is creating costly problems for agricultural operations in Sacramento County, with thieves targeting pumps and control systems and causing damage that far exceeds the value of the stolen copper. <\/p>\n

“They ripped everything from the disconnect to all the wiring out from the box to the pump,” said Justin Oldfield, a rancher who has experienced copper theft firsthand. <\/p>\n

Oldfield said he caught two individuals on camera stealing copper wire from one of his pumps and its control box, causing thousands of dollars in damage. He estimated the stolen copper was worth just $150 to $200. <\/p>\n

Authorities say copper theft is a widespread issue affecting multiple industries. <\/p>\n

“Target-rich environments for these thieves are going to be telecommunication systems, HVAC systems, so a lot of construction sites really become target opportunities for them,” said Sgt. Edward Igoe of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. <\/p>\n

Since the start of the year, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office has received more than 100 reports of copper theft, with total losses exceeding half a million dollars. <\/p>\n

For Oldfield, the impact went beyond repair costs. His vineyard went without water for weeks. <\/p>\n

“When someone comes in and does damage to our pumps, to our electricity \u2013 that drives those pumps and we can’t irrigate, it completely throws our operation out of whack,” Oldfield said. <\/p>\n

He added that neighbors have also been targeted. <\/p>\n

Agricultural properties are particularly difficult to monitor, according to Sgt. Igoe. <\/p>\n

“I think that agricultural operations become more vulnerable than others just because if you have 100-plus acres, most of the time, they don’t have surveillance covering all of that,” Igoe said. <\/p>\n

To combat the issue, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office has deployed mobile surveillance units in rural areas to deter thefts and identify suspects. <\/p>\n

The problem isn’t limited to Sacramento County. A few weeks ago, the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office reported a significant increase in copper theft, particularly in agricultural operations. <\/p>\n

Last year, the California Attorney General’s Office issued a bulletin highlighting the growing problem of copper wire theft, noting that repair costs often far exceed the value of the stolen metal. <\/p>\n

In response to the rise in metal theft, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed AB1941 into law. The legislation targets organized and repeat metal theft and establishes a statewide data-sharing tool to help law enforcement and other agencies track these operations.<\/p>\n

See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. \u2014 Copper wire theft is creating costly problems for agricultural operations in Sacramento County, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[191216,191217,191208,36407,17037,191213,68632,8831,88697,191218,11198,91898,457,175449,191214,191210,721,5031,191215,346,45900,191212,191219,191209,121,357,6769,123,122,190142,191211,191220,72,14771],"class_list":["post-489970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-ab1941","tag-agricultural-operation","tag-agricultural-operations","tag-california-attorney-generals-office","tag-construction-sites","tag-control-box-theft","tag-copper-theft","tag-copper-wire-theft","tag-costly-damage","tag-costly-problem","tag-dollar","tag-edward-igoe","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-hvac-systems","tag-irrigation-outage","tag-justin-oldfield","tag-law","tag-metal-theft","tag-mobile-surveillance","tag-office","tag-pump","tag-pump-theft","tag-repair-cost","tag-rural-theft","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-county","tag-sacramento-county-sheriffs-office","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sgt-edward-igoe","tag-vineyard-damage","tag-widespread-issue","tag-year","tag-yolo-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}