PHOENIX – Car alarms and home alarms are pretty common, but what about an air conditioner alarm? It has come to that for some people trying to protect their A/C units.
Thieves are going around valley neighborhoods and ripping A/C units right out of the ground. They’re stealing the copper components inside and selling them.
Replacing an A/C unit is big bucks, and these alarms will alert police if the unit is tampered with.
It may sound extreme to some people, but more and more home and business owners are thinking it’s a smart move.
“In some case I’ve see the entire unit gone, in other cases I’ve seen pieces laying on the ground,” says homeowner John Kuntz.
Kuntz is calling thefts from homes in his South Mountain subdivision downright alarming.
“Approximately, I want to say, 10 maybe even 12 were taken over a period of time.” At a replacement cost around $5,000, it can get expensive.
Kuntz called in Armor Security, an alarm company with a unique invention. Your home’s A/C unit is now wired into your home security system.
“If this unit were opened and accessed it would set off the alarm and dispatch the police to the home,” says Jonathan Willis, Armor Security company.
Armor Security has already installed 60 of these “Copper Cops” on A/C units around the valley this year. Willis says as copper prices rise, so do thefts.
“Now with the economy the way it is, the number of vacant homes out there, we’re seeing a rise in it.”
Willis says Copper Cop would run $150 to install on a home unit and $250 on a commercial A/C unit.
For homeowner John Kuntz, the numbers told him buy the Copper Cop.
“This only makes economic sense.”
You may recall a story about a valley church burglarized by copper thieves hit this weekend — running with the church’s $24,000 A/C unit for the second time this month.
Willis says he will donate an alarm to that church to save them the cost and the heartache of having to repair or replace another A/C unit.
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Article Source: http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/stop-ac-unit-thefts-with-an-alarm-7-26-2011