WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD

Copper plumbing is not the only smoldering pipe missing from the
basement of a Chilliwack apartment. Thieves made off with more than
$1,200 in copper pipes from the Pauline Apartments but left an empty
crack bag and a makeshift crack pipe fashioned from a broken light
bulb to show why they needed the cash.

The front door to the 20-unit complex, located at 46278 Yale Rd., is
locked tight and an ash tray lined with syringes stands just a few
metres away. The building is entered easily through the unlocked back
door and a few steps down into the dark and dingy basement reveals
staff from Sardis-Vedder Plumbing and Heating working to replace the
plumbing. On Thursday night someone hacked the water lines from the
spider infested roof, presumably to resell the expensive building
materials for drugs.

"They probably got enough to get high for a weekend," said Lou
Lullul, a plumber working for the company. "On this side they took
the better part of 100 feet of pipe."

The price of a single foot of copper pipe has spiked dramatically in
the past five weeks and now retails from $3 a foot for 3/4 inch to
$56 a foot for four inch pipe. Most of the pipe stolen from Pauline
Apartments was 3/4 inch with a few larger pieces also missing.

Lou carefully clips a bit of pipe with a tube cutter and begins to
replace a small section.

"This is the same tool they would have used right here. That or a
pair of tin snips," Lullul said. "I'm not taking any chances here.
This is old pillar and post wiring and it would be easy to get
electrocuted. Touch one of those posts and you're done. I didn't get
this old by being stupid."

The thieves turned off the water but left the power on.

Last month a Langley man was killed by a 14,000-volt shock while
stealing live copper hydro wire. Langley RCMP said the Surrey man,
35, was known to police and had a criminal record.

"When you get these kinds of (price) increases the theft of copper
pipes is bound to happen," said Lullul. "I've only seen it once
before and that was 10 to 12 years ago. The price of copper has gone
down and up again since then.

"We did a job in Hope and we did all the copper pipes and then Monday
they're all gone again," Lullul said. "They're chopping them out
faster than we're putting them in." He finishes with the tube cutter
and begins to melt the seal with a blowtorch. Spiders scurry out of
the way as the blue flame melts cobwebs and sauder alike. Lou points
out little baggies on the floor and an upturned piece of a broken
glass light bulb with a charred bottom resting on a nearby shelf.

"With something like this they should be looking at the residents,"
said Lullul. "Whoever stole these pipes had to have been in this
basement before."

Copper theft increasing

Chilliwack RCMP have seen an increase in copper theft and reported
thefts range from two to three per month to twice a week. Const. Bert
Paquet said police don't consider it an epidemic.

"Usually some copper pipe or wiring has been left out on a job site
and someone will take it... causing mischief and vandalism to get at
the copper and start ripping it off is something new."

Often thieves steal the copper to support an addiction to drugs or
alcohol, he added. Police have no suspects or witnesses to the theft
at Pauline Apartments.

"What they do is they steal copper and sell it at scrap metal
places," Paquet said. "It's hard to keep track of where stolen copper
shows up. Most piping wouldn't have any kind of marking on it to show
where it came from."

The only metal scrap yard listed in the Chilliwack phone book is
located on the south side of downtown Chilliwack, a few blocks from
Pauline Appartments. Lou Bouthot, owner of L and L Traders said he
turns away any scrap metal that looks suspicious.

"If they're going to steal copper pipes they're not going to sell it
here because my prices are lower," he said. "They'll go to Abbotsford
or Surrey... I check identification too."

All scrap metal looks alike and he does buy copper pipe from time to
time, he added.

"I don't support that kind of thing," he said. "I've had lots of
stuff stolen from this yard... tools and stuff... maybe if they had
better programs for druggies and homeless people this kind of thing
wouldn't be happening."

Landlord living in hell

"This is pretty much East Hastings right here," building manager Phil
Wolstenholme said, pointing down the arched hallway of the circa
1930s apartment where the copper was lifted. The oak wood floors have
been covered with dark green carpet and there are more than a couple
of stains. The copper pipe thieves tried to smash through a wall in a
desperate attempt to get into the basement and another door was once
stolen right off its hinges.

Wolstenholme and assistant manager Shelly Darel said they are almost
at the end of their rope after four years of removing squatters from
the basement, evicting drug dealers or sex trade workers and fixing
everything from kicked-down doors and jimmied locks to smashed mail
boxes and broken light bulbs used as crack pipes.

"Every day I risk my life cleaning up blood and syringes," Darel
said. "And it's like this every single day."

Most of the "action" happens late at night and Darel usually deals
with overdoses, violent guests and other emergencies in the early
hours of the morning.

"We have children living here and sometimes there are hookers passed
out on the stairs doing the head shake," she said wobbling her head
like a heavy drug user.

They have tried to evict residents but it's a long and arduous
process if they know how to play the system.

"We evicted one (resident) two months ago and she's still living
here. We have no idea when she'll finally be out of the apartment,"
Wolstenholme said. "When you do get new people checked out and moved
in you don't know who you've got there until they start dealing
drugs. Then it takes another four months to kick them out."

Wolstenholme doesn't live in the building so when he tells RCMP that
residents are selling drugs and sex his observations are legally
considered "hearsay" and he can't make a police statement.

"We kicked out one (drug dealer) five times because he kept getting
his friends to rent the apartment for him," Wolstenholme said.

"And these were clean-cut guys," Darel added. "Guys you would never suspect."

"It's not our fault and it's not the owner's fault. There's just not
much else we can do," Wolstenholme added. "Most residents don't cause
problems."