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Thieves in Los Angeles are stripping copper wiring from streetlights and selling…

2026-05-06 · 15:21 UTC ·@johnloeber ·1 min read

Brief

John Loeber argues LA's copper-wire thefts are an antisocial, costly problem: thieves strip streetlight wiring for a few hundred dollars while the city spends $100–$1,000 per $1 of scrap (often six-figure repairs) and leaves lights dark. He says the city rejected a better lock, shuns enforcement, and that incentives currently profit unions, repair contractors and some politicians while taxpayers bear the cost.

Why it matters

Thieves in Los Angeles are stripping copper wiring from streetlights and selling it for scrap; the author claims the city spends $100–$1,000 in repairs for every $1 of wire sold, a single thief might earn a couple hundred dollars while repairs can reach six figures and leave lights dark, risking accidents.

Key details

  • @johnloeber says the city rejected a better locking solution and avoids aggressive enforcement; measures like requiring scrap yards to record sellers are seen as ineffective. He argues a perverse incentive loop benefits local union labor, repair contractors and certain politicians while residents and taxpayers absorb the costs.
Source evidence

I can’t stop thinking about the LA copper wire thefts.

For background: in LA, thieves have been stripping streetlights of their electrical wiring and selling it for scrap. It is amazingly destructive: for every $1 of wire they sell, the city has to spend $100-$1000 on repairs. Literally, the thief might make a couple hundred bucks, and the city has to spend six figures. (Oh and the streetlights are out, which may lead to traffic accidents or other problems.) It’s an extremely antisocial crime.

Astoundingly, the city seems unwilling to do something about this. A guy invented a better way to lock down streetlights — they didn’t want it. The idea of “look for the thieves and put them in jail” has been unpopular for reasons unclear to me. Proposed solutions, like making scrap yards record who sold them copper wiring, seem ineffective.

The most cynical explanation for this is that the incentives lead to crime: the money spent on repairs is primarily spent on local union labor. For them, this is great. There’s a whole industry for servicing these problems. And the city gets to say that it is working on fixing the issues. Up to some limit, the more of these issues, the better.

Everybody wins: the thieves win, the laborers win, the repair industry wins, certain politicians and candidates win. Well, the actual resident, the taxpayer — they lose, but what are you gonna do? Live with the lights off? Vote for the tough-on-crime candidate? Unthinkable.

You can look at this as a system that has degenerated into being a recursive loop that drains the resources of its citizens