A 500% spike in the price of copper since 2001 has resulted in thieves grabbing it wherever possible -- even if it's sometimes still in use. That means a flood of stories each year about idiots being electrocuted as they try to strip wire from live utility poles, or phone and broadband outages galore when the thieves target telco poles. In 2006, I was a victim of the flooding in upstate New York, and while people were busy fleeing for their lives and trying to salvage what remaining possessions weren't destroyed by water and mud, many thieves moved in to strip vacated homes of copper piping.

Years after repeated stories of this type, a new study by the FBI says that copper theft is now officially threatening the country's infrastructure.

According to the FBI, 4,000 residents in Polk County, Florida, were left without power after copper wire was stripped from an active transformer at a Tampa Electric facility. The agency also notes how five tornado warning sirens in Jackson, Mississippi did not warn locals of an April tornado, because thieves had stripped the siren of its copper. Farmers in Arizona saw $10 million in damages after the theft of copper from water irrigation wells and pumps resulted in the loss of crops and high replacement costs.

"Organized groups of drug addicts, gang members, and metal thieves are conducting large scale thefts from electric utilities, warehouses, foreclosed and vacant properties, and oil well sites for tens of thousands of dollars in illicit proceeds per month," says the report.

One marginally helpful solution could be of course for more telcos to deploy more last mile fiber, migrating away from traditional copper. Another solution may just be happening organically in the market: copper prices are plummeting amidst a sour economy, making theft slightly less profitable. Arizona's Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, the world's largest copper supplier, is slashing costs to help deal with falling prices.