Seems that Barack Obama’s step-grandmother isn’t the only one staving off solar-panel stealing thieves. The renewable technology has become so popular that police in California are seeing a massive increase in stolen panels from around the more than 33,000 installations in the state. From the article,
This summer, an officer on patrol became suspicious when he spotted a man trying to sell solar panels to a home builder who had advertised on Craigslist that he was seeking panels. The officer confiscated the panels and, after detectives found that they matched panels stolen from a school, a California man was charged. Mr. Lee says that law enforcement agencies are investigating about a half-dozen other solar-panel thefts in his area. “We were surprised and kind of caught off guard” by the solar thefts, said Mr. Lee, who recommends people engrave their driver’s license numbers onto their panels for better identification.
I guess it’s not surprising in a time when energy prices are rising and demand for solar is on the increase. Homeowners should definitely take precautions — including engraving identifying numbers or other marks on their panels. Once guy painted the outside of them all pink to easily identify them from the road if taken. Another recommendation is to setup a camera to monitor your installation. As with any outside fixture, however, there’s only so much paranoia you can spend on such a “worst case” scenario. In the end, just make sure you’ve got good insurance.
One Comment
While Congress is busy scheeming how to steal our money for a bail out of bank fraud,
thieves steel our solar panels. We must have taken lessons from some other countries.