Eminence police investigating copper theft from business

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – A man made off with more than 11,000 pounds of copper from a copper plant in Eminence, Kentucky, earlier in the month, and police there are asking for the public’s help with finding the suspect.

Eminence police were contacted on Oct. 18 around midnight on a report of a theft. Surveillance video shows a man walking around the warehouse of the business. An employee asked the suspect if he could help him with anything and the suspect replied no and walked away.

“He just walked around without a care in the world. He did not look cagey. He just looked like he was supposed to be here,” Eminence Assistant Police Chief Scott Wilcoxson said.

The suspect left Hussey Copper in a white truck outfitted with a dump bed, perfect for getting away with heavy materials. Police believe he possibly went toward Shelby County.

“You see him come out with a pallet of copper coil, loads it, then there’s two scrap bins that he picks up and loads,” Wilcoxson said.

Police suspect this heist may not have been his first.

“It looked like they had the right vehicle for the right job,” Wilcoxson said.

It’s that fact which leads investigators to believe this was a local operation.

Wilcoxson said in one previous heist, a suspect who made off with more than 40,000 pounds of copper from the same plant by posing as a company that was there to pick up a load. That stolen copper was later tracked down several states away through the help of a GPS tracking system which typically is put on loads being shipped out.

Because the copper that was stolen in this theft was sitting in their warehouse, there’s no way to track it down.

Hussey Copper did not immediately respond to a request for comment. If you know anything about the suspect, you’re asked to contact Eminence police.

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