Man Arrested in Georgia

Richard Jones was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly stealing copper from an AT&T tower in Greenville, North Carolina. The arrest was made in Georgia, where Jones had been residing. Several feet of copper had been taken from the tower site, which caused thousands of dollars worth of damage for the AT&T structure. Jones was charged with, “felony injury to property to obtain non-ferrous metal, 12 counts of felony obtaining property by false pretense, and 6 counts of felony transporting less than 25 pounds of copper on state highways,” WCTI-TV reported. Unfortunately, tower theft has increased steadily over the past few years. While these weren’t all from cell towers, the National Insurance Crime Bureau reported that the number of copper thefts from 2006 to 2008 was 13,020 and from 2010 to 2012 there were 32,568.