As a city agency struggles to address streetlight repairs across Los Angeles, neighbors in Pico-Union have been left in the dark for months.
Once the sun sets in the Pico-Union area, workers and residents approach the streets with trepidation. Here, and in other parts of Los Angeles, copper-wire thieves have stripped them of their sense of safety. 'I had a guy pull a gun on me one night,' said Albert Robles, owner of Robles Carburetors, at Hoover and West 18th streets. Emboldened, he believes, by the cover of darkness, the man was breaking into a car and didn't want any interference from Robles.
The Bureau of Street Lighting said theft of copper wire from streetlights rose 800% from 2017 to 2023, NBC reported. Los Angeles City Council members have been struggling to address copper-wire theft for months, debating whether to levy heavier consequences to deter crime. Thieves absconded with seven miles of copper wire — about $11,000 worth — from the newly rebuilt 6th Street Bridge, plunging the so-called ribbon of light into pitch black last month.
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