LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An Old Louisville church is dealing with tens of thousands of dollars in damage after a copper wire theft.
Nearly $70,000 worth of damage has been done to Louisville Church of Christ, on South Fourth Street, after it was hit by recent copper wire thefts.
The church's board president, John Hedges, and other members of the church walked into the building June 22 and immediately noticed the air conditioning wasn't working.
It wasn't until they had someone look at the units that they found out what happened. They realized the roof was damaged and that their air conditioning units were torn apart.
The church's neighbor had a camera on top of their building and found there was a group of people in the alley between 1-4 a.m. Hedges believes those are the thieves.
Hedges said the thieves cut through their fence, climbed onto the roof of the church and removed some of the copper flashing. He also said they cut copper out of three air conditioning units.
"We'd really like to have a welcoming nice place, but people keep coming through here in this case, with a crew, damaging our stuff, it makes it difficult to do our mission which is just to talk about Jesus," Hedges said.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said the thieves are also targeting interstate lighting, utility poles, communication lines and infrastructure connected to 911 service.
In an effort to stop the thefts, the city created a new task force, installed more cameras and added new technology to alert police when wire is being cut.
Hedges said he's glad city leaders are putting a spotlight on the issue.
"It's really important for the community to know that there's just a few people in the area that are causing a lot of havoc and a lot of expense for people they don't even know," he said.
Hedges said the next step is building a better fence, locking up access to the roof ladder and putting up their own surveillance cameras.
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