Successful retail properties are moving beyond traditional security and toward a more defensible operating strategy.
Copper thieves don’t just steal from a property; they create enormous expenditures. Copper theft is one of the few crimes where criminals can cause nearly $50,000 in damages, just to steal $30 to $50 worth of material.
It starts with a rooftop HVAC unit or an unsecured house power panel. Consequently, a few dollars’ worth of copper quickly becomes thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in repairs; days without power or air conditioning; disrupted tenants; emergency contractor invoices; insurance claims; and hours’ worth of your valuable time.
The reality is that the copper was never the real loss; copper thieves aren’t calculating the true replacement cost of the damage they cause.
The economics driving copper theft have become increasingly attractive. COMEX copper futures increased 41 percent during 2025, ending the year at $5.68 per pound before moving above $6 per pound in early 2026. Copper theft has surged nationally over the past three years, driven by record commodity prices and retail/shopping centers, especially rooftop HVAC and vacant anchor spaces, which have become prime targets alongside utility structures on the property.
These spaces are singled out repeatedly as high-risk targets because rooftop HVAC access is often shared across an entire row of tenants. Once thieves are on one roof, they can easily move from one unit to another without descending to street level. Vacant stores and dark retail spaces compound the risk, because they typically go unmonitored for extended periods, making them disproportionately attractive compared to occupied space.
For example, recently in Houston, a business located in a shopping center was targeted twice in one week for copper wiring. The subsequent incidents resulted in electrical damage, loss of power and thousands of dollars in spoiled inventory, among other business losses. Houston officials told television station KPRC that the Houston Police Department has reported an uptick in copper-wire theft over the past several years, specifically noting that commercial properties with limited security or multiple vacant storefronts can be particularly vulnerable.
One of the challenges with copper theft is that many shopping centers are not designed or supervised with this particular crime in mind. Most ownership groups focus on the front of house, while working to make the property attractive for tenants and their clients. The back of house — where most of the electrical services are located — is rarely given much thought.
Ownership groups and property managers are constantly balancing operating expenses, tenant needs, maintenance and capital improvements, so unless a property has previously experienced copper or HVAC theft, spending money specifically to prevent it can be difficult to justify.
As a result, the response is often reactive — an air-conditioning unit is damaged, copper wiring is stripped, a vacant suite is compromised or electrical service is interrupted. Only then does the property begin looking for ways to prevent the next occurrence.
Unfortunately, the first break-in elevates the property’s risk level. By successfully stealing the copper, thieves gain valuable insight: how to enter the property, where the valuable material is located, how much time they have to work and whether anyone is likely to intervene. A successful theft can therefore become reconnaissance for the next one.
The question for ownership is not simply, “How do we stop someone from stealing copper?,” but “How do we make this property a less attractive target than the alternatives around it?”
That is where principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, or CPTED, become valuable. CPTED focuses on changing the environment, so that criminal activity becomes more difficult, more visible and more likely to result in detection or intervention.
For shopping centers, several basic CPTED principles can be applied specifically to copper and HVAC theft, such as:
- Improving natural and electronic surveillance
- Controlling access to vulnerable areas
- Increasing visibility
- Creating signs of active ownership
- Considering active deterrence rather than passive surveillance
The purpose is not to make copper theft impossible; few security measures can make that promise. The main objective is to increase the thief’s effort, exposure and uncertainty, while reducing the opportunity and time available to commit the crime.
A shopping center can have cameras, strong lighting, locks, fencing and alarms and still experience theft. But the strength comes from layering those measures together and designing them around the property’s actual vulnerabilities. This is the prime difference between simply having security equipment and creating a more defensible property.
A secured property is prepared to document and respond to an incident, while a defensible property is designed to discourage the incident from occurring in the first place.
— Burke Yates, executive vice president of SentriForce