VISTA: Copper theft attempt halts cancer treatments

Tag : copper bus

VISTA ---- As many as 65 cancer patients went without radiationtherapy Wednesday after a would-be thief ripped out the copperplumbing that cooled the radiation machines at the private,outpatient clinic where they are being treated, police said.

"I have no word for these people," said patient Yulia Alvarez ofOceanside, who takes the bus to Oncology Therapies of Vista eachday. "They don't understand how many lives depend on that machine."

The clinic's pipes, recovered at the scene, would have fetchedbetween $300 to $400 at a recycling center, officials said.

Beth Bourbeau, office manager at the Sycamore Avenue clinic, saidWednesday that when she arrived at work, she discovered there wasno running water. When she tried unsuccessfully to turn the wateron at an outdoor valve, she saw tools and gloves left behind bywhomever had yanked out the building's copper plumbing.

With the pipes dismantled, the clinic's large chilling unit wasunable to provide the water needed to run its two radiationmachines, she said.

Between 60 and 65 people were scheduled to receive radiationtherapy at the clinic Wednesday, but none did, Bourbeau said.

Alvarez, in the middle of a six-week course of daily radiation,said she was nervous about missing her Wednesday dose. Bourbeausaid missing one treatment was unlikely to have a negative effecton patients.

Plumbers who responded vowed to work through the night to get theoperation up and running by Thursday, she said.

The attempted theft reflects a nationwide trend of copper theftsthat began in 2005 when the value of the metal doubled in manymarkets. Thieves have targeted power lines, communications linesand construction sites.

Sgt. Art Wager of the Vista Sheriff's Station called the SycamoreAvenue theft a classic copper crime.

"I don't think this place was targeted simply because it was acancer clinic," he said. "I think it was targeted because it was acommercial complex that was deserted in the middle of the night."

Bourbeau said she thinks the thief became spooked by something orsomeone and fled without the copper.

Bourbeau said that repairing the damage to the operation could costseveral thousand dollars.

In addition, the clinic lost revenue it had expected to earnWednesday, she said.

Wager said the Vista detective who recently led an undercover taskforce on metal theft was headed to the Sycamore Avenue sceneWednesday.

"Somebody knows who did this and they need to call us," he said.

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call the VistaSheriff's Station at (760) 940-4341.

Contact staff writer Colleen Mensching at (760) 739-6675 or cmensching@nctimes.com .