■ Copper coppers: A particularly enterprising copper prospector joined his increasingly bold fellows this weekend when he broke into an occupied East Side residence and stole its copper plumbing. While it’s become commonplace for vacant or abandoned structures in Buffalo to be stripped of their material goods—particularly copper piping—it’s only since the beginning of 2007 that occupied buildings have been targeted.

Driven by the continually rising price copper fetches on the market (which has quadrupled since 2004), the copper thieves have targeted homes, churches, a laundromat and even a couple of plumbing companies over the past year. According to the owner of the house, located at 1786 William Street, his outdoor electric meter was stolen two months ago, adding insult to injury.