My brother rehabs repossessed homes in Kansas City (another story) and copper theft there is rampant. A deserted home is apt to be stripped of copper in the first 72 hours it is empty with the thieves demolishing walls and anything else that gets in their way. They work fast and ugly. A neighborhood can go down even quicker when homes not only stand empty but are broken into by professionals who can literally tear out most of the copper in less than an hour.