According to a recent article in The New York Times, solar panel theft is the hottest new trend in California and reaching its way to other parts of the country through the Internet. Stealing solar panels is becoming a lucrative market for thieves who are selling them for profit to unwitting homeowners, frequently using sites such as Craigslist and eBay.
With solar panels costing tens of thousands of dollars and becoming lighter and more appealing to homeowners, it's not hard to believe thieves have learned how to profit off of them. In order to remove a solar panel, a person has to climb to the roof and know how to detach it, causing many to suspect the thefts are being done by solar industry insiders.
Most of the thefts have been occurring in California, the country's leading solar-power market, but that may be changing. The New York Times noted that Oregon's highway department has also lost a few panels to power portable traffic message boards over the past 18 months. It is the nation's first solar-panel project on a major U.S. highway and will provide 28 percent of the energy needed to power lights at the interchage during nightime by the year's end. As more of these large-scale projects across the nation are made public and as economic times continue to get tougher, it is likely we are only seeing the beginning of what is being described as the crime of the future.
It will not be long before standard deterrents will be put in place, such as built in alarm systems, which are already being used in Europe, or solar panel manufacturers being required to engrave serial numbers on newly installed panels. In the meantime, law enforcement experts advise those with panels to install other theft prevention devices such as motion lights and their own alarm systems.
Source: BecauseAction.com
