NATCHEZ — When Rosa and Melvin Demby returned to their store, The Wedding Mart, Monday after a week out of town, it was slightly warmer than normal. The reason — their air conditioners had been stolen.

The two units behind the building at 4 East Franklin St. had been stripped of all the copper components and were left useless Rosa said.

“They took everything but the fan,” she said.

The remaining two units are small and not able to cool the building on their own, making it very difficult to work, she said.

“Today we’re burning up in here, and they’ve just really left us in a pickle,” Rosa said.

The Wedding Mart has been in the same location for five years and has never had any crime problems.

Melvin is a Vidalia police officer and is at the store in uniform almost every day. Rosa said she thinks the thieves did not see him or the Wedding Mart van and assumed it was a good time to strike, even though there were other employees at the store until 5 p.m. every day.

WTYJ, a Natchez radio station also had its air conditioner stolen June 4.

“They took their time and clipped the little copper lines,” said Calvin Butler, operations manager. “We had to buy a whole new unit because they took everything. They ripped it up really bad and just left the compressor.”

The station was able to replace their unit later that day, but at a cost of $2,400. The expense also came out of pocket because their insurance did not cover the theft.

WTYJ has put a cage around their new unit to protect it but Butler still does not consider it completely safe.

“You probably can’t prevent it but you can discourage it,” Butler said.

Sgt. Craig Godbold, of the Natchez Police Department said that copper theft is nothing new but it has increased.

“Once the price of copper went up they’ll tear a house up in a heart beat,” Godbold said.

The thieves initially hit construction sites and abandoned homes and then moved up to unoccupied rental houses, he said.

“Now they’ve gone further and they’re going to businesses that close down on Friday and don’t open until Monday,” Godbold said.

The timing of the thefts makes the thieves hard to catch but people usually don’t see them. However, if done improperly someone could be electrocuted cutting the wires.

“If they cut the wrong wire we’ll know who did it,” Godbold said.

Godbold said that much of copper is being sold locally at places like Concordia Metal Works and Andrews Metals in Natchez. However, a new law, which takes affect Aug. 9 could make it much more difficult to sell the metal.

The law will require scrap metal dealers to view a photo ID and write down the sellers name, address, and age for their records.

Also, the date and place where the seller got the metal, the tag number of the car used to deliver the metal and a signed statement from the seller must be kept on file. Any scrap metal dealer who does not comply with this will be considered to have received stolen property.

For now though, Godbold said people need to watch out for their neighbors and neighboring businesses to prevent thefts.