King County prosecutors are warning of a significant uptick in copper wire theft across Washington state, prompting calls for urgent legislative action to safeguard critically essential infrastructure. Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Gary Ernsdorff cautioned that rising copper prices are fueling widespread disruptions—thieves are now cutting long stretches of communication wire from utility poles, sometimes up to half a mile, leaving communities vulnerable to outages and interruptions in services like 911, medical monitoring, and security systems. Utilities face hundreds of thousands of dollars in repair costs and extended service outages, even if the thieves net only a few thousand dollars in scrap value. Ernsdorff pointed to prior success in combating catalytic converter theft through legislation and is now backing House Bill 2213, which would require recyclers to photograph copper wire, retain it for a mandatory period, upload transaction records to a statewide searchable database, and allow law enforcement to seize suspected stolen materials.

State legislators are pursuing parallel strategies. Representative Dan Griffey has introduced House Bill 1453, proposing stiff civil penalties for scrap yards that purchase stolen copper—up to $10,000 for a first offense, $20,000 for a second, and revocation of scrap-yard licensing upon a third violation. While HB 1453 has bipartisan sponsorship and widespread concern over infrastructure theft, it remains stalled in committee.

Utilities, especially in rural areas like Mason County, are already adopting deterrent measures. Some public utility districts have begun marking fiber-optic cables as having no scrap value to deter mistaken theft, raised lines higher to reduce accessibility, and installed GPS tracking and covert surveillance in high-risk zones—efforts made necessary by sharp year-over-year increases in incidents. For example, Lumen reported more than double the number of thefts in a single year compared to the last.

Together, these developments paint a clear picture: copper wire theft is not just a localized nuisance but a growing statewide threat to public safety and infrastructure resilience. The proposed legislation—HB 2213 with its systemic transaction tracking, and HB 1453 focused on enforcing accountability—offers two complementary lines of defense. With communities bearing the brunt of service disruptions and repair costs, their passage in the 2026 session will be closely watched.

Sources:

MyNorthwest / KIRO 7 News: “Thieves have moved on from catalytic converters to stealing copper wire, prosecutor says”

Legislative tracking for HB 2213 (addressing theft and vandalism involving metal property)

Representative Dan Griffey’s bill intentions and HB 1453 tracking

Washington State Standard: “Utilities and telecoms turn to WA lawmakers for help as copper wire theft surges”