The Mississippi riverfront in downtown St. Louis has become a hotspot in the city’s cat-and-mouse battle with copper wire thieves—with the city struggling to stay one step ahead of increasingly aggressive thefts.
The ill effects of the thieves’ handiwork are readily apparent. North of the Arch, both the Eads Bridge and stretches of Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard on the riverfront have lost lighting because of thieves. Gates controlling traffic both north and south of the Arch aren’t operable because thieves absconded with their wiring.
“You need lighting down there,” says Ben Jonsson, a retired Air Force colonel and the city’s chief operations officer. “You also have to have access.”…