Copper thieves ransack Gardena warehouse; $500,000+ in damage, power cut

Copper thieves cause $500,000 damage to Gardena business

Thieves in Gardena ransacked a local warehouse, cutting the power to steal copper wiring, and flooding the building after cutting copper pipes. Local businesspeople say the same group is responsible for other thefts in the area.

GARDENA, Calif. - A Gardena warehouse has had to shut down after thieves ransacked the place over the Thanksgiving holiday, causing more than half a million dollars in damage for just a few thousand dollars of copper and merchandise. Police are still looking for the thieves, but the businessowner says they live in an RV just down the block.

Typically, the warehouse would look like Santa's workshop this time of year, with hundreds of workers boxing and shipping hundreds of thousands of products for the holidays. The business works with retailers like Amazon, Chewy and more. But the recent thefts have forced the company to go dark.

"It's our busiest time of the year, and right now we can't ship anything," said businessowner Andrew McKennon. "So, this could ruin our year."

The thieves were caught on surveillance cameras over the weekend, stealing things like televisions, computers and boxes of goods. But they didn't just take merchandise. They also cut the power to the building so that they could steal copper wiring from the electrical panels, and cut copper pipes, flooding the warehouse and damaging even more product.

Between the stolen merchandise and the damage to the business, McKennon estimates his losses at more than $500,000. The thieves even brought a ladder to get to a copper pipe on the ceiling. IT's worth about $300, but McKennon said it will cost him about $10,000 to fix.

"Worst part is that the people that did it are living in a motor home down the street," McKennon said. "And we watched them, on the surveillance, take everything out of our building and pushing shopping carts down the street. And they're literally still living down the street and the shopping carts are outside the motor home."

McKennon believes the same thieves hit their neighbors as well, including Johnathan Louis International, which manufactures sofas.

"We believe it's the same people, the homeless people that are living around the block," said Fernando Ordaz with Johnathan Lewis International. "And we're trying to figure something out to try and help mitigate this theft."

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the thefts.

Gardena Crime and Public Safety