Copper theft forces patients to skip cancer treatment

NORTH COUNTY TIMES

VISTA: Copper theft attempt halts cancer treatments
Without it, outpatient radiation machines couldn't be cooled

By COLLEEN MENSCHING - Staff Writer | Wednesday, July 30, 2008 8:10 PM PDT ∞


VISTA ---- As many as 65 cancer patients went without radiation therapy Wednesday after a would-be thief ripped out the copper plumbing that cooled the radiation machines at the private, outpatient clinic where they are being treated, police said.

"I have no word for these people," said patient Yulia Alvarez of Oceanside, who takes the bus to Oncology Therapies of Vista each day. "They don't understand how many lives depend on that machine."

The clinic's pipes, recovered at the scene, would have fetched between $300 to $400 at a recycling center, officials said.

Beth Bourbeau, office manager at the Sycamore Avenue clinic, said Wednesday that when she arrived at work, she discovered there was no running water. When she tried unsuccessfully to turn the water on at an outdoor valve, she saw tools and gloves left behind by whomever had yanked out the building's copper plumbing.

With the pipes dismantled, the clinic's large chilling unit was unable to provide the water needed to run its two radiation machines, she said.

Between 60 and 65 people were scheduled to receive radiation therapy at the clinic Wednesday, but none did, Bourbeau said.

Alvarez, in the middle of a six-week course of daily radiation, said she was nervous about missing her Wednesday dose. Bourbeau said missing one treatment was unlikely to have a negative effect on patients.

Plumbers who responded vowed to work through the night to get the operation up and running by Thursday, she said.

The attempted theft reflects a nationwide trend of copper thefts that began in 2005 when the value of the metal doubled in many markets. Thieves have targeted power lines, communications lines and construction sites.

Sgt. Art Wager of the Vista Sheriff's Station called the Sycamore Avenue theft a classic copper crime.

"I don't think this place was targeted simply because it was a cancer clinic," he said. "I think it was targeted because it was a commercial complex that was deserted in the middle of the night."

Bourbeau said she thinks the thief became spooked by something or someone and fled without the copper.

Bourbeau said that repairing the damage to the operation could cost several thousand dollars.

In addition, the clinic lost revenue it had expected to earn Wednesday, she said.

Wager said the Vista detective who recently led an undercover task force on metal theft was headed to the Sycamore Avenue scene Wednesday.

"Somebody knows who did this and they need to call us," he said.

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call the Vista Sheriff's Station at (760) 940-4341.

Contact staff writer Colleen Mensching at (760) 739-6675 or cmensching@nctimes.com.