Has your church, business or home been the victim of copper theft in recent years? If not, you won’t have to look far to find someone who has been affected by this growing epidemic. With the price of nonferrous metals growing exponentially and hard economic times, copper theft has become a golden opportunity for criminals to acquire quick cash.
HendrickCopper theft is an issue that the South Carolina Baptist Convention office of public policy has been working on since last summer in an effort to protect the 2,100-plus churches that we serve. One of the most common reports is copper wire being stolen from a church’s heating or cooling unit. For the most part, these buildings are vacant during the week, and one hit can cost thousands of dollars in damage for just a small amount of cash.
Southern Mutual Church Insurance provides some alarming data. Through the month of May, their company alone paid copper theft claims to 88 churches in South Carolina, representing $622,831 in losses. That’s an average of $7,000 per strike.
The theft of a church’s heating and cooling unit not only puts a huge financial burden on church budgets, but it also disrupts services, funerals, weddings, and the operation of daycares. The messengers of the 190th South Carolina Baptist Convention annual meeting overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling on legislators to tighten the laws on the sale of nonferrous metal.
The bill that our office has worked on, H. 3660, was recently signed into law and will take effect on Aug. 17. The new law will allow honest businessmen to trade copper, but will make it easier to catch criminals who sell stolen metal. This new law will require those selling copper to go to their county sheriff’s office and obtain a free permit to sell copper.
Furthermore, recyclers must log information of each copper sale, including the seller’s photograph, license plate number, and copy of their permit. Finally, this law will ban cash payments and the recyclers must issue checks, which can be traced.
We would like to express gratitude to Rep. Harry Ott (St. Matthews) and Sen. Clementa Pinckney (Ridgeland) for leading the fight in their respective chambers and making this legislation a reality to protect our churches. We would also like to thank the many pastors and laypeople in Spartanburg who responded to our requests to make calls and send e-mails when it appeared as if a Spartanburg senator was going to block the bill.
We ask you to continue to stay engaged in public policy that deals not only with social and moral issues, but also issues such as this one that directly affect our churches. This law gained the majority of its momentum from a resolution last year. It is a reminder that you do have a voice in public policy. Continue to pray for our elected public officials as they lead our counties, state and nation.
– Hendrick is associate director of the South Carolina Baptist Convention’s office of public policy.