This house on Roy Carpenter’s Beach had its copper plumbing stolen. The metal commands high prices on the resale market, making it a tempting target for thieves.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

SOUTH KINGSTOWN

Dickran Manoogian returned from his winter home in Florida this spring to find his family’s summer cottage stripped of its copper pipes.

Walter William “Bill” Arcand lives less than two miles up the road in Perryville, but his summer retreat in Matunuck, too, was robbed of its water pipes.

More than a dozen residents of Roy Carpenter’s Beach have returned in the last few weeks to find that thieves have neatly sliced the copper pipes from underneath their pint-sized seaside cottages while they were away this winter.

“They used a pipe cutter,” said Arcand. “They weren’t savages about it.”

The Police Department has received eight reports of copper thefts south of Route 1 since April, Capt. Jeffrey Allen said. But Arcand puts the number at 13 alone at Roy Carpenter’s, a community of 377 summer cottages that sit vacant during the winter.

“I think a lot of people are finding their [water] pumps are running and there’s water all over,” Arcand said.

Copper theft has become a nationwide problem as the market price of the malleable metal recently hit $4 a pound. Thieves rip wires and pipes from buildings and trade them in to scrap dealers for cash. Copper was valued at $3.62 a pound on Tuesday, but dealers are said to offer $2.50 to $3.

The Providence police began noticing the trend last year. Fifty-seven thefts or attempted thefts of copper were reported in the city in the first seven weeks this year.

The stealing spree has worked its way south to South County’s shorelines, where earlier this week the water shimmered blue-green and bikini-clad beachgoers tossed Frisbees. While there have been occasional copper thefts from vacant cottages in past years, they have picked up dramatically in frequency this year, Allen said.

Some of the cottages are set on pilings a foot or so off the ground, making it easy for the thieves to shimmy under and remove the pipes.

Arcand estimated 30 pounds were lifted from the cottage his family bought 20 years ago.

“How much did they get, $90? It seems like a lot of work for 90 bucks,” he said. “It would have been better for them to get a job.”

The police do not have any suspects, Allen said. “It’s one of those things, how do you trace it?” he said, adding that in the past the department hasn’t “had much luck” working with the dealers.

Dealers say it’s a difficult situation. “There’s really no way we can tell if it’s been stolen,” said Cindy Martin, of Exeter Scrap Metal. “If we suspect someone, we call the state police.”

Thieves have been making off with an estimated $100 to $500 in copper per cottage in South Kingstown. They would face a larceny charge that would be based on the amount stolen.

Arcand has completed the repairs at his family’s place and plans to begin his morning walks toward the rising sun this weekend. But this time around, he installed plastic pipes.

kmulvane@projo.com