Town police last week reported yet another theft of copper pipe from a residential property, marking about 15 such copper thefts locally since the beginning of the year.

Police said that they learned at about 5:40 pm on May 17 that someone at some time had burglarized a vacant house for sale on Jeremiah Road in Sandy Hook. The burglar then stole many sections of copper piping from baseboard heating equipment inside the house.

Police had no estimate of the value of the stolen copper.

The current market price for scrap copper tubing is about $2.50 per pound.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said this week that town police are cooperating with police from other towns in seeking to learn who is stealing the copper pipe from local properties.

The copper thefts have occurred across town, Chief Kehoe said.

The police chief said he expects that the people who burglarize houses to steal copper know exactly what they want to do once inside a house and then do it quickly, evading capture.

Chief Kehoe urged residents who notice any suspicious activity which may constitute copper theft to call police promptly, so they can investigate.

On May 19, police investigated two cases of copper pipe theft at two vacant houses near the intersection of Sugar Street, West Street, and Boggs Hill Road.

In one case, the theft of pipes from the basement of a house on Sugar Street punctured a charged water pipe, resulting in pressurized water spraying out of the punctured pipe to flood the basement to a depth of about 30 inches, representing about 2,000 gallons of water.

In early May, police learned that unknown persons had been stealing an extensive amount of copper piping and copper wiring for an unknown period of time from Cochran House, a large vacant building at Fairfield Hills.

The multistory 188,000-square-foot red-brick Cochran House is at 21 Mile Hill Road South, on the southern edge of the town-owned Fairfield Hills campus. The Cochran House thefts constitute first-degree larceny, which represents a loss value of more than $20,000. The thieves apparently gained entry into that building through one of its many exterior doorways.

Other recent residential copper thefts occurred at two vacant houses near the intersection of South Main Street and Greenbriar Lane, on Russett Road, and on Pole Bridge Road.

Police ask anyone with knowledge of the copper thefts to contact them at the police station at 3 Main Street, telephone 203-426-5841.