Copper wire thieves target 3 Las Vegas-area businesses in 1 week

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Copper wire thieves strike again for the third time in a week at a shopping center near Rancho Drive north of Charleston Boulevard.

Last week, Broadway Pizza was the target of copper theft through their air conditioning unit, and on Wednesday night both New York Bagel n' Bakery as well as Starbucks had their air conditioning units ripped through.

"They just hit Broadway Pizza and then a couple of days later, we noticed it was really hot in the shop. That's when we realized we got hit too and so did Starbucks," Stefanie Montesano, Manager of 'New York Bagel N Bakery' shared with 8 News Now.

Montesano, doing her best after being the latest victim of copper wire theft.

"My HVAC technicians went up and saw everything so at this point it's just a box with nothing going on inside," she added.

Metro police are aware of the situation.

"I was told by Broadway Pizza that these people who stole the copper wire might be posing as HVAC technicians. Going around just to get on the roof with no questions asked."

Over at Stay Healthy Wellness store, manager, Esther Batista said the shopping plaza needs round-the-clock security as they've had their AC tampered with too in recent years. Due to this, they now have to take extra precautions.

"We were forced to put our unit in a cage to protect it because we don't want this to keep happening. We also have cameras around and alarms that sound off," Batista said.

Customers such as Edsel Centeno doing all they can to show their support, but said it seems that this type of crime of copper wire theft is only getting worse.

"The small businesses they're the ones that suffer and the community suffers too because we support them so they've got put heavier laws out there," Centeno said

This is the third business in the Rancho Towne and Country shopping center located on Charleston and Rancho to be hit this week.