Cops cop copper coppers

We've always hoped to run that headline one day. (Hat tip to Adam Gaffin at Universal Hub.)

The Catskill Daily Mail is reporting that a trio of alleged copper thieves was caught red-handed in the act of stripping the piping from a house in Athens. Looks like it's a family business:

Robert W. Robinson Sr., 46, Robert W. Robinson Jr., 19, and a minor, all of Athens, were each charged Monday morning with three counts of second-degree burglary, a class C felony.

In other alleged-shenanigans news, three gentlemen of Ulster County -- two Rodney Coopers and a James Lambert -- are currently cooling their heels in the county jail, accused of running a pavement-sealing scam on elderly homeowners:

The trio is accused of offering to seal an elderly woman’s driveway “for a reduced price due to the homeowner’s age,” telling her that the job would cost her “a few hundred dollars.”

When the job was finished, it had escalated “into the thousands of dollars,” police said.

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