Copper thieves have turned a Northern California post office into a sauna — ripping off its air conditioners three times in just over a month and leaving workers and customers to sweat through triple-digit temperatures.
Employees at the Centre Branch Post Office in Sacramento County have been stuck without central air conditioning after crooks repeatedly stole the building’s exterior AC units to strip them for valuable copper, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The first theft happened on Memorial Day weekend, when thieves made off with the units outside the post office at 3545 El Camino Ave. in Arden. Workers barely had time to recover before the replacement units disappeared too.
In all, the small post office has been hit three times since Memorial Day, forcing the US Postal Service to rethink whether it’s even worth replacing the air conditioners until it can install a system thieves can’t easily steal.
“The Centre Station Post Office, which has three employees, has been targeted by copper thieves three times since Memorial Day, with the building’s exterior air conditioning units stolen each time. Every incident has been reported to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service,” USPS spokesperson Meiko Patton told The California Post.
“We’ve replaced the units twice, only to have them stolen again. Rather than repeat this cycle, we are pursuing a permanent, theft-resistant solution and are currently reviewing contractor bids. Once approved, installation will proceed as quickly as possible. We do not have a completion date yet, but this is a priority.”
Until then, workers are relying on portable AC units at their desks while customers are left to endure the sweltering lobby. One customer told the Bee the temperature inside reached 90 degrees this week as a brutal California heat wave continued.
“We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers,” Patton said.
The president of the American Postal Workers Union Local 66, Bryan Embry, pointed to department policy that employees must be notified by employers about “reported safety hazards” and what’s being done to address them.
Embry told The Bee that this specific post office is managed remotely with supervisors at a post office a mile and a half away.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s office said it had not received any calls for theft at that location in the last six months, but did admit there’s been “transient theft” in the area that surrounds the spot.
Copper theft has been an ongoing issue in California as the value of the metal creeps upward. Most stolen copper wire is found in scrap markets as thieves try to sell it to make some money.
