A Slidell man was arrested this month after robbing at least 10 electrical substations of the precious metal copper, authorities said.

Once a hot commodity as copper prices surged to around $3 per pound after Hurricane Katrina, ingenious thieves often looted the common metal used to plate pennies and also found in pipes, electrical wiring and air conditioned units of vacant homes under renovation.

Despite the prices plunging back to about $1 per pound and the thefts dwindling, authorities said Derek Ray Ancalade, 27, of 2018 Swan St., spent the past eight months or so alongside co-defendant Joseph Williams of Mississippi cutting fences to the substations and stealing the copper wiring, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office Detective David Landrum said.

Ancalade

While no one is thought to have lost power during the thefts at the substations that supply electricity to power grids for nearby homes and businesses, the act was more dangerous than a common rip off, Landrum said.

The lives of many workers with CLECO and Washington-St. Tammany Electric, the area’s two power companies looted, were in danger when they inspected such areas, unaware the copper wiring was ripped away, Landrum said.

Neither company could be reached for comment.

Such dangers led Sheriff’s Office deputies on Nov. 13 to charge Ancalade with aggravated criminal damage — a charge designated when such theft can contribute to bodily harm — as well as nine counts of theft of utility property. Coupled with Williams, from Yazoo City, Miss., the pair are thought to be responsible for copper thefts at 24 substations, Landrum said.

Like Williams, who was arrested weeks earlier, the circumstances surrounding Ancalade’s arrest were not immediately available. As of Tuesday both he and Williams remained in the parish jail, Bonnett said.

For now, parish authorities are simply glad to have the copper thieves behind metal bars.

The duo’s eight-month spree took them throughout St. Tammany Parish and beyond where they robbed several substations in Mandeville, Lacombe, Slidell and even Talisheek, a rural area northeast of Abita Springs.

“Once we got these two guys we haven’t heard anybody else ripping off copper,” Landrum said. Ancalade alone “was hitting substations in almost every area of our parish.”

The spree started when Williams teamed up with another unidentified man from Mississippi, who was disgruntled with his bosses at a utility company. The man taught Williams how and what copper to rob from the substations, and the spree began, Landrum said.