Charging cable theft at home

[Rob Mathewson]

Saw a neighbor’s cable got clipped last night.

Anyone else noticing this?

Rob Mathewson 206-396-0449

[Paul Kahle]

You mean they stole a level 2 cord?  Where would you even sell that small amount of copper?

PK

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[Jeremy Smithson]

You're assuming that this was an intelligent person

Jeremy Smithson | Government Affairs

805 Rainier Ave. S.

Seattle, WA 98144

Office 206-706-1931 Cell 206-669-7337

        

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[Matt Simerson]

On Feb 8, 2026, at 12:10 PM, 'Jeremy Smithson' via SEVA Email List <SEVA...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

You're assuming that this was an intelligent person

It's not intelligent to assume everyone operates under the same incentives as we do.

Pacific Iron & Metal, and any number of recyclers around Seattle accept small amounts of copper. If the thief was industrious enough to strip the insulation off the cable, they'd get 4-6 pounds of "candy" grade copper, which is worth about $5 per pound. That makes an EVSE cable worth about $25, which is coincidentally the legal cash limit that recyclers can pay walk-ins.

The street value of $25 is a few warm bus rides, a couple meals, or for-staying withdrawal symptoms. Since some people are operating under very different, and likely very short-term incentives, it's sensible to consider ways to reduce the attractiveness of our ~$200 cables. Strategies include:

- inside a garage

- put away when not in use

- retractible reels (like Seattle's curbside chargers). The cable is only exposed when charging.

- clamped overhead, greatly reducing the length of cable that can be quickly carted off

- in well-lit areas

My EVSE is mounted out of sight from the road. To get at it, you must walk through my carport, which has two motion sensors that turn on outdoor lights around the area. Since those lights only come up for motion, it attracts attention (ooh, raccoon, coyote, or human?) from myself and neighbors.

Matt

[MARC NORDLUND]

It's a HUGE problem with individual homes and at public charging stations. 

It's difficult to do this if both your arms and legs are broken. Just sayin'. 😏😏😏

Or jery rigg it to give them a non lethal dose, but knock them out. 

'Why take a bite out of crime when you can have the all-you-can-eat buffet.' - Marc Nordlund 

Marc

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[Glenn Brooks]

Copper thieves will often hit  multiple small locations to make a decent haul.  Same thing with catalytic converter thieves… 

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[Brian Grunkemeyer]

For the L2 public charging stations, ChargePoint came up with some approaches after the new CEO came in.  He spent a few months playing around in his garage, and out came this video:

22 minute interview explaining what they did:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHp_xByWhNQ

1 minute summary ad:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lK7wUEVl6E

(This is good, since I haven't seen anything new out of ChargePoint for about 5 years.  Replacing Pasqual with Rick Wilmer may help them stay relevant in a world where Emporia has great, cheap hardware.)

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From: seva...@googlegroups.com <seva...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Glenn Brooks <glenn.b...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 8, 2026 2:47 PM
To: seva...@googlegroups.com <seva...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [SEVA] Charging cable theft at home

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[John Ruhland]

Matt,

Thank you for your well written response, which was the most useful response on this subject.

We have a camera on our charging location. Would that be enough of a deterrent?

On another matter, does anyone know if tonight's meeting is all-ages?

We have a prospective UW Engineering student interested in attending a SEVA Meeting. She is 16.

Thanks!

JR

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[Chris John]

We shouldn't always assume it's a theft for copper, I think some of it is vandalism by "EV haters". I wish there was data available on this.

Chris

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[Glenn Brooks]

John,  camera’s aren’t always noticeable or obvious to passersby.  Often a good idea to post a small sign warning that a camera is recording activity at the site.  Also, make sure your camera is high enuf quality and placed properly to actually identify potential thief physical characteristics, and pertinent background, such as their automobile/vehicle.  (Helps greatly in apprehension).

Glenn 

Sent from my iPad

On Feb 11, 2026, at 10:31 AM, Chris John <ccjohn...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Jeremy Smithson]

In the mid 2010's we did maintenance for Blink and Semaconnect and there was a rash of EV-hater vandalism but it was typically damaged touch screens, or impact from a truck.  This happened to our Chargepoint units outside of our shop in 2019, and that was our only incident until copper value surged.   Since then the cords were cut on two occasions, including (6) Level 1's and we replaced all the stations with Tesla units in locked boxes, the code to which we give to drivers who want to charge.

We have an account at Pacific Iron for our routine recycling.  YOU MUST HAVE AN ACCOUNT at Pac Iron, so perhaps thieves are selling wads of copper to a 'fence' who then takes the contraband out of State.

Thefts of L2 cords have occurred in waves, so the thieves are probably just using Plugshare or one of the other apps to locate hapless victims.

On the face of it, Chargepoint's latest solutions look like they might be effective.  After the second cord-theft at our shop, I replaced the cords and snuck a hot wire in near the top of the cord under some heat shrink tubing but we ended up swapping those units out before I got a chance to see if my deterrent worked.  That was probably for the best :-)

Jeremy Smithson | Government Affairs

805 Rainier Ave. S.

Seattle, WA 98144

Office 206-706-1931 Cell 206-669-7337

        

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SEVA_list/1DA89411-2BA0-4A41-A95F-B32C08097266%40gmail.com.