West Sacramento Using Fake Plastic Panels To Thwart Metal Thieves
WEST SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - More than $200,000 of West Sacramento taxpayer money has been spent over the last three years to replace stolen metal. City workers came up with a solution that will cut down on expensive replacements.
A decade ago the city installed more than 100 new streetlights to brighten up West Capitol Avenue.
"It has a decorative fixture on top and it's a cast aluminum pole," said West Sacramento Public Works Maintenance Superintendent Bob Kahrs.
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Kahrs says those metal poles soon became magnets for thieves, with suspects stealing the aluminum access plates and then selling them as scrap metal.
"This particular cover being so unique, [they] are $160 each," he said. "And when we order these covers it takes about two months to get them," he said.
And every time it happened, the covers had to be replaced right away because the bare electrical wires were a safety hazard. A city mechanic came up with a plan to stop the thieves and save money at the same time: he created new plates out of plastic.
"I was skeptical about that; I told him it had to be perfect, it had to match, and it had to look like the original or we didn't want to do it," said Kahrs.
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But with a little silver spray paint -- it's tough to tell the difference between the metal ones and the plastic ones. Each plastic replacement only cost about $7 to make -- a huge savings, thanks to city workers with some bright ideas.
"We bring together a very diverse team and we're able to come up with some very creative solutions," he said.
Since the plastic covers have been installed, not a single one has been stolen.