Copper Thieves Hit West Side Sports Complex Hard

There won’t be any Friday night lights or any lights of any kind for awhile at a sports complex used by thousands of Borderland youth football and soccer players.

Officials from the city’s General Services Department think copper thieves broke into a huge transformer at the less than 3-year-old complex late Sunday night, cut the cables and then tried to pull them out with a truck. They didn’t get away with much copper, but the damage was extensive to the 13-field complex located behind Canutillo High School and El Paso Community College in West El Paso.

“It’s a sad day,” Parks and Recreation Sports Manager Paula Powell said Wednesday after seeing what crews discovered earlier this week. “I’ve never seen anything this bad. We had to bring in a generator just to water the grass. The concession stand, the restrooms, there’s no electricity in those. The whole park has no electricity.”

Others were just as shocked.

“In my 30 years I’ve seen some of it, lots of vandalism, but nothing like this,” said Jerry Padilla, an electrician for the city’s General Services Department, which indicated it could take two weeks to get the lights to work again. “It looks like somebody who knew what they were doing. They knew how to approach it and they knew what they were after.”

The thieves got away with about a dozen copper cables about six-feet long and worth about $1,500 total on the open market. But they also caused about $10,000 worth of damage and caused the cancellation of about 500 youth football and soccer games.

“It makes me feel sad for all the families that are going to be affected by this,” Powell said. Youth football coach Trent Hatch, with the Texas Tribe, called it “a real shame. When we tell the kids tonight they might not have some of the Wednesday night games, they’re going to be extremely disappointed.”

The price of copper has recently doubled to more than $4 a pound. An El Paso Electric employee told Parks and Recreation today that they’ve been seeing two or three copper thefts a week.

A local copper buyer told ABC-7 a new law going into effect tomorrow will require them to take pictures of anyone they buy copper from. And Parks and Recreation officials are considering adding security cameras or personnel to the complex.