I happened to notice last night that the cover on my next door neighbor's AC breaker box was laying on the ground. Not a big deal, until my husband mentioned that he noticed the cover to ours was open the day before. I looked at our unit closely and didn't notice anything wrong but thought it was still an odd coincidence that both ours and our neighbor's had been opened.
So today, I called a friend that owns a heating/cooling company and asked him what anyone would want with the breaker box. He said there is nothing in the actual box that anyone would waste their time on, but more than likely, whoever had tampered with them was trying to shut the units off in order to steal the copper tubing without fear of electrocution. I've heard about the copper tubing issue, just never knew they had to turn off the units to get it.
On most, if not all, of these breaker boxes, there is a place for a lock. I would recommend putting some sort of lock on yours. It's obvious someone's been scoping out what's available in our area. I think we may have been spared because of the large motion-sensored flood light that sits right next to our breaker box, but they may come back more prepared next time.
Marnie Staud
Paris Blvd. N.
