The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Super Value owner Rupert Roberts yesterday renewed calls for a ban on copper exports after his Wulff Road store sustained “thousands” of dollars in damages Tuesday night, and warned the thieves “could bring the country to its knees” if unchecked.

Speaking to Tribune Business after Wulff Road became the sixth Super Value location to be hit by copper thieves in the past year, Mr Roberts said scrap yards were just as bad as the vandals because they accepted the stolen copper without asking questions.

Calling on the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) “to do more” to combat the copper thieves, Mr Roberts said the stripping of refrigeration and air conditioning systems could put companies put of business.

“Thieves disabled our Wulff Road store last night,” the Super Value chief told Tribune Business.

“They took all the copper out of the refrigeration system. It’s thousands of dollars, and our refrigeration team is over there now putting it back. There’s hundreds of feet of copper tubing.

“Anything copper they cut away, they steal. I hope the police go after the junkyards. When they take that into the junkyards to sell, unless they are thieves themselves, they should turn them in.

“But that’s not happened yet, so I have to assume junkyards are thieves too, buying stolen property. I would think the police could do something about the junkyards using stolen property.”

Over the past year, Mr Roberts said Super Value’s Blue Hill, Golden Gates, Robinson Road, Wulff Road, Mackey Street and South Beach stores had been hit by copper thieves.

He added that the company caught those who had struck his Mackey Street store, but the police did not want to do anything with them.

Acknowledging that Super Value had the wherewithal to support a refrigeration team that was able to repair systems damaged by the copper thieves, Mr Roberts said the supermarket chain would “not suffer any loss of business” as a result of the Wulff Road disruption.

“I sure would like to see a ban on the export of copper,” he told Tribune Business. “The junkyards, I don’t think, would buy it if you put a ban on the export and say it’s for at least five years.

“It puts you out of business. They did us so bad in South Beach that we had to re-order, and some of the stuff takes three months. That was the case with Leslie Miller; he had to re-order, and that took a three-month wait. It depends on what they take.

“They steal thousands and thousands of dollars, and the junkyards pay them pennies. If it’s a $20,000 job, just the labour and materials replaced, they probably get $100 out of it and it’s the junkyards that make the real money.”

Noting that compressors, valves and electrics had all been targeted and sustained damage, Mr Roberts said the copper theft situation seemed to improve after he “went right to the top” with his concerns.

Wulff Road was the first of his stores to be hit this year, and the Super Value president told Tribune Business: “I really think the police can do more, and the Government can really solve it.

“If there’s no more moratorium on the export of copper, they should put it on. If it starts up again, and they stop BTC, BEC and the other government entities from functioning, they could bring the country to its knees, like other Caribbean islands.”