Thieves break into empty Timmins home to steal copper piping

A northern Ontario property owner is wrestling with the issue of people stealing copper piping.

The latest theft was from a rental property in Timmins that was just about to be occupied.

Nick Hansen is not sure exactly when it happened, but he found out on Dec. 30, as 2022 was coming to a close, through a text from his property manager.

Hansen told CTV News he couldn’t have imagined a worse way to end the year.

He said the house he once lived in while studying to be an electrical engineer and since turned into a rental property had been broken into and robbed of all its copper piping.

"Sitting on the couch with my two daughters, just watching some TV and my stomach dropped … whole bunch of emotions coming overtop on how to deal with this," Hansen said.

The property owner said he had just put more than $10,000 of work into the basement after a floor and was almost ready to rent out the house again in the New Year when the back door was kicked in.

Located on the north side of the city close to a safe injection site, Hansen said he’s not giving in to negative comments in the community about people on the poverty line.

He said he’s mainly disappointed that whoever did this didn’t care to think others might also be in tough financial straits.

"You’re going to do this and then someone else can deal with it. Thinking that they -- because they have a spare property or a rental property -- just, they had money. And it’s not right,” Hansen said.

He said he doesn’t blame his property managers at Boreal Asset Management, saying the thief or thieves likely took advantage of people’s holiday vacations.

Staff at the company said this is a common criminal act nowadays, with copper being of high value in the black market.

Hansen said while he considered selling the building after the incident, he’s pushing forward to renovate it again with more cost-effective piping and hopes that local police will catch whoever is responsible.