Teen accused in copper theft shot by police
The theft of copper wire and fittings have become a highly profitable business for criminals but tonight a teenager is hospitalized following a shootout between police and suspected thieves in the Stann Creek District. According to Independence police, around one on Saturday morning, officers were tipped off that a burglary was in progress at the Aqua Mar Shrimp Farm. When the cops arrived in an area east of Monkey River Estate, they say they spotted a group of men carrying the wiring. But instead of dropping the copper and taking bush, police say one of the men pulled out a handgun and started shooting. The officers returned fire with a shotgun and pellets struck fifteen year old Isaac Santos from Bella Vista Village in his lower abdomen. A search of the immediate vicinity turned up Isaac’s twenty-eight year old brother Carlos. Isaac was rushed by ambulance to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital on Sunday where he underwent emergency surgery. Carlos has since been charged with Handling Stolen Goods and Burglary. He is scheduled to appear before a Magistrate on Tuesday. The suspected gunman is still at large. Police have recovered two forty foot lengths of copper wire but a check with Aqua Mar has revealed a total of thirteen pieces of similar length were also stolen. According to the shrimp farm’s managers, this is the fifteenth such incident on their property in the last twelve months. The company estimates the total loss at more than a hundred thousand dollars.
In related news, police did recover more than eight hundred pounds of copper wire which was stolen from Belize Electricity Limited’s Independence compound on April first. The metal was found in a pick-up truck driven at the time by Rogelio Padilla. Padilla was charged with Handling Stolen Goods and is set to reappear in court on May thirteenth.
Copper is a hot commodity in Mexico and Guatemala and investigators believe that the thieves resell the stolen goods to buyers from Cayo, Corozal and Orange Walk who then smuggle the metal across the border. B.E.L. has warned thieves of the danger of coming in contact with the live wires but the practice has continued unabated. While we’re sure there’ve been many close calls in the past, the crime had deadly consequences in June 2006 when two thieves attempting to rip off a B.E.L. substation were electrocuted in the process.
