July 6, 2010

Can you believe it, thieves breaking into a Wichita business to steal scrap metal? We've heard that before. But that isn't all they took from Hopper's Glass Company.

Britt Hopper is all too familiar with the work of thieves at the family business. He can think of three occasions when burglars break through fencing to steal. This time they cut gate clips to get past the locks. Hopper says thieves go straight for the metal.

"It's quick money to either get out of debt or buy drugs or whatever," Hopper said.

The glass company uses aluminum in the making of windows for commercial buildings. They hold the scrap in these bins for their own recycling.

"All these bins are usually stacked to here and two to three tall," Hopper said.

Hopper is trying to determine how many bins were taken. He says it could have been a dozen.

Police says thieves helped themselves to a company fork lift to move the bins. Hopper says precious metal isn’t all that’s taken.

"They took two of my trucks. One of them is a 1-ton Super Duty Ford that's a flat bed that has a dump on it. The other is a 1/2 ton with a half rack in back," Hopper said

The trucks are similar to this one left behind. Also missing is a flat bed trailer like this one, but without the side railings. Hopper’s not certain of the total loss, but says it’s easily more than $20,000.

“It's frustrating. It's frustrating to put in an honest day's work and be violated late at night. And you wish you could catch them," Hopper said.

Police ask anyone that may have any information that could lead to the arrests of those responsible for the theft to contact them.