Petty Theft of $500 or Felony Theft of $250,000 From the OB Pier?

By Geoff Page

The farther away a person is from the effort that created the wealth that person is responsible for, the less effort a person will expend in using it wisely. The curse of public works.

In a November 19, 2025 article, The Rag reported that people were stealing copper wire off the OB Pier amounting to several thousand dollars in recycle value. The city was notified but did not seem to care at all. It was only due to my persistence that the city finally filed a police report about the theft. The report just illustrated how little attention the city paid to information about the theft.

The police report, dated 12-8-25, stated “petty theft” with a market value of $500. It was filed a month after I notified the city of the apparent theft of wire and piping on the pier rail.

A thousand feet of copper wire was clearly worth much more than $500. But, as is now known, the cabling was the least of the theft. The thievery could be valued as high as $250,000.

Using a Public Records request, I obtained a copy of the 1989 pier rehabilitation drawings that showed the utilities on the pier. I spent years as a construction estimator, estimating wet and dry utilities so I know how to read utility plans. The measurements are rough, taken using Google Maps. Estimates are not perfect but can be very accurate.

The drawings cleared up the last remaining mystery for me  — why what appeared to be a sewer line was also removed all along the pier. As it developed, it was a six-inch diameter copper pipe. Over 800 feet of it. That was a lot of copper.

That’s not all. The pier water piping also consisted of:

• 2,642 feet of three-inch copper pipe
• 552 feet of two-inch, 1.5-inch copper, one-inch, and ¾” copper pipe.

How the stolen pipe is valued is a wide range, from $35,000 for purely copper metal recycling or as much as several hundred thousand dollars if the pipe was reused.

Calculating the amount of copper in a six-inch diameter copper sewer pipe resulted in a recycle value – just for copper weight – of $9,600. It is possible the pipe was worth far more in its pipe form. New six-inch copper pipe costs $332 per foot . This means 800 feet of pipe could be worth something south of $265,000.

If the pipe was tested, and certified sound, it could be resold at something less than that figure. Just cutting it in half could mean a value of $132,000. There are some ifs, but the potential was there.

The three-inch water pipe resulted in a recycle value of $16,000. Once again, it is possible the intact pipe may have brought a higher price. Three-inch pipe is worth $94 per foot. Multiplied by 2,642 linear feet results in a new value of $248,348. Once again, halving that would come to $124,174.

Lastly, the recycle value of the smaller diameter piping came to $2,000. This piping may also have been reusable but it is too difficult to calculate that figure without knowing how much was there was of each. Overall, going north and south on the pier arms, there could be as much as 500 feet of two-inch, 1.5-inch, 1-inch, and ¾” piping feeding the cleanout sinks and drinking fountains.

Add the loss of the cable at possibly $7,500 and the total loss could be as high as $35,000.

The loss could be between $35,000 and $256,000. Not just $500.

The manner in which all this material was stolen further illustrated the city’s complete lack of attention to the pier. As described in The Rag’s story:

“Someone went to a lot of effort to remove this pipe. As can be seen in this picture, the chain link fencing that is attached to the rail on the inside had to be cut and pulled back to access the pipe, in multiple locations.”

The accompanying picture shows all the cutting to the chain link fence in order to access the pipe hung on the north side of the north rail. The point is that it took some real effort to steal this pipe. In fact, as related in the November story, the pipe was in the process of being stolen when I, and Charlie Landon, alerted the city to the theft. The remainder of the large pipe disappeared after the city was notified.

In order to remove so much piping, the thieves had two choices. The pipe could have been taken through the pier gate that they cut several times or it could have been lowered to waiting boats. However it was done, the city and the San Diego Police Department did not notice a thing. The mayor cut the lights to the pier, which made the thefts much easier at night.

The money for the piping and cable could have gone into the kitty for eventually replacing the pier. Instead, the money went into someone’s pocket. Perhaps that was why no one at the city cared. A serious police investigation is clearly called for.