Thieves targeted Recycle Utah four times in six days last week and early this week, stealing wiring or breaking into the offices, in what was a rare series of cases in Park City in which one organization was repeatedly struck in such a short period of time.
Insa Riepen, the executive director of the not-for-profit Recycle Utah, said the cases started on Aug. 8 and continued until Sunday. The thieves struck last Monday, last Tuesday, last Friday and Sunday, she said.
Two windows were broken, the offices were vandalized and the grounds were vandalized. The thieves took wiring from the outside and destroyed the cash register inside. Riepen said a “minimal amount of cash” from the register was lost to the thieves, but she declined to provide a dollar figure.
“We feel violated. We’re afraid. We take this very personal,” she said, calling the cases a “sad day for Park City.”
Recycle Utah operates out of a one-room office at the Recycling Center on Woodbine Way. Most of the grounds are dedicated to storage or the large recycling bins. The site is in a tucked-away spot that is not visible from major streets.
The thieves broke into the office twice and stole from the grounds twice, according to Riepen.
The windows that had been broken had been covered with plywood by Monday. Recycle Utah posted notes on the boards saying “No cash kept on premises” in English and Spanish. There was still glass on the carpet from the broken windows on Monday.
The cases were the first of their kind at Recycle Utah in Riepen’s 13 years with the organization, she said. Riepen by Monday had not totaled the dollar value of the losses.
“No nonprofit in this community can afford to lose a penny,” she said.
Riepen fears there will be similar cases in the future, including the potential of more break-ins at Recycle Utah.
The Park City Police Department received the reports at various times of the day. Police logs showed the department ordered a special watch on the property, a common move when there have been repeated break-ins. Officers stopped by the site at least twice on Sunday, at 9:49 p.m. and 7:46 p.m., according to department logs. In each case the officer did not find problems.
“We have never been accosted in any way, shape or form,” Riepen said.
The wiring was taken from appliances that are stored at the site as well as other places on the grounds, Riepen said. She said the thieves likely stole the wiring to sell on the black market.
“We have metal. You can’t make any more metal. They go for the metal first,” she said about the wiring.
Wiring is also a common target of thieves who break into construction sites. There have been occasional thefts at construction sites in Park City, but there were not any reported last week. Those cases typically involve equipment and sometimes supplies.
The Police Department continues to investigate the cases at Recycle Utah. It was not clear early in the week how much evidence the police had collected or what progress had been made in the investigation.
Rick Ryan, a police captain, said the copper inside the wiring is valuable. Thieves could sell the copper to a salvage yard or a dealer in precious metals, he said. Thefts of wiring with copper inside are infrequent, Ryan said.
People with information about the cases may contact the Police Department at 615-5500 or call the department’s anonymous-tip line, 615-5847.