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- --a- - -- <br />Contractors, plumbers, electricians, and other businesses throughout the metro area are reporting a spike <br />in similar thefts and burglaries. <br />Costly for victims <br />Thieves have made seven nighttime forays onto gravel pit owner Pete Fischer's Apple Valley property in <br />the past six months to cut cabling from conveyor belts and machinery. <br />On Feb. 22, Apple Valley police arrested a man in connection with one of the thefts. According to <br />charges, the man dragged stolen cable away from the pit and left it in a pile near a road, then returned <br />with two other people the next day to pick it up. <br />The arrest was good news for Fischer, but he said that more cable turned up missing the following <br />weekend, "so apparently there's quite a few people doing this kind of stuff." <br />"It's annoying, it's frustrating, and it's costly," he said, adding that his business has lost close to $15,000 <br />in copper wire alone. <br />Medina Electric, which wires housing developments throughout the metro area, has been hit about 10 <br />times in the past six months, said president Roger Georges. The company has resorted to hiring security <br />guards and making daily deliveries of wire to its sites. <br />"We've just been bringing out what we can put in in a day's work," Georges said. <br />Jensen, of Connexus, said that his co-op has beefed up security at its main facility, printed fliers for <br />scrap dealers and door hangers for customers in hard-hit areas, and even offered a $5,000 reward for <br />information leading to the conviction of thieves. <br />Xcel Energy tightened security when it first realized it had a problem, an effort that McCoy said has <br />reduced the number of burglary attempts at the company's service centers. Now, McCoy said, thieves <br />are more active in the field, where they are more likely to come across energized wire. <br />"We're not aware of any deaths yet, but God, it's just luck," he said. <br />3/27/2006 <br />