Records show that crime tends to occur in trends. There may be an outbreak of stolen guns one month and a rash of domestic violence incidents another. If the crime is lucrative enough, however, it may continue over a long period of time, such as the wave of garden decor thefts that took place in Fairhope earlier this year.

Law enforcement agencies across the nation are fighting to end one such trend: the reselling of stolen precious metals to scrap metal companies. The resale business provides powerful incentive for thieves, as the metals are nearly impossible to trace. Last year, countless rolls of copper wire were stolen from phone companies and construction sites. Now, police reports show thieves are honing in on air conditioners, which may contain as much as 20 pounds of copper wire.

“We see a number of reports of air conditioners and copper stolen from construction sites,” said Cpl. Craig Sawyer with the Fairhope Police Department. “But it’s not just for the money that people are stealing air conditoners. People steal them for the Freon.”

The Freon, he said, is used for “huffing,” a method of getting high.

“We have actually had incidents of people on roofs attempting to empty Freon from the units,” said Sawyer.

Unlike other trends, which seem to come and go, the drug trend is not abating. Sawyer said he is seeing an increase in theft of prescription drugs. Forged prescriptions have been submitted at both CVS and Rite Aid in Fairhope, and an 18-ml bottle of morphine sulfate was recently reported stolen at Beverly Healthcare.

Alcohol now seems to be a popular trend among thieves, although Sawyer attributes it to juvenile activity, a form of thrill seeking. A group of juveniles were arrested earlier this month for breaking into ElGiros Restaurant and stealing a bottle of whiskey, said Sawyer. Thieves also broke into Papa’s Bar and Grill and stole 15 bottles of whiskey and more than $200 in cash.

Police are making as many as 10 drug-related arrests arrests each week, and although most incidents in Fairhope involve marijuana, police reports show that crack cocaine, ecstasy and prescription drug use is on the rise.

Because many addicts have difficulty maintaining employment, they often steal to support their drug habit, said Sawyer.

This may be the case in a robbery that took place last Sunday, he said, when an unidentified man entered the lobby of the Key West Inn, armed with a pistol, and demanded the night clerk hand him all the money. The clerk gave him an undisclosed amount of cash from the register, and the thief took the money and fled. No one was hurt, said Sawyer, but this robbery and others like it are just another symptom of the growing drug problem.

The clerk’s eyewitness account and a video surveillance camera have given investigators a good description of the perpetrator, and police hope someone will step forward with information about the robber. He is described as a dark-complexioned black male, 6 feet or taller, weighing between 180 to 200 pounds; between the ages of 20 and 30. He was wearing dark colored shorts and had a white T-shirt tied around his head to conceal his face during the robbery.  

If you have any information related to this, or any other crime, contact the Fairhope Police Department at (251) 928-2385.