OAKLAND–When police said they wouldn’t investigate a theft at his Temescal locksmith shop last week, owner Randall Reed took action.

Reed, who owns Reed Brothers Security on Telegraph Avenue, arrived at work on Sept. 18 to find $800 worth of copper wire missing. The wire had been bolted to a welder and locked with a chain and padlock on one of the store’s trucks.

“It was really heavy, finely stranded copper,” he said of the $4-per-foot, gauge-two wire, used for creating 1,000-degree temperatures to melt steel.

Because the wire, commonly stolen by thieves who sell it to recycling plants, was imprinted with the store’s logo, Reed knew there was a good chance it could be recovered. He notified local recyclers of the theft, and sure enough, Custom Alloy Scrap Sales on Peralta Street called him later that morning: it had his copper.

Custom Alloy requires recyclers to present a driver’s license and to have a photograph taken of them and their product, so Reed obtained copies of Michael Givens’ driver’s license and photos that also included a homeless man named Sonny, who sold the wire. He made $64.

At Custom Alloy’s request, Givens went to Reed Security Brothers, where he told Reed he had helped Sonny sell the wire, but he had not known the copper was stolen. Givens also told that Reed Sonny could be located at another local recycling plant.

But Givens didn’t start his career as a recycler. Lt. Mike Yoell, a member of the Oakland Police Department’s theft unit who reviewed this case, confirmed Givens worked for the OPD as a police officer for eight years before getting fired more than 15 years ago. Givens could not be contacted to comment for this story, but he told Reed his cell phone was stolen a few days before the copper theft and he could not afford to purchase a new one. There is no phone number listed under his name.

It was then that Reed called the OPD to report the theft. With a copy of Givens’ driver’s license, a photo of Sonny and a confession, Reed thought the police would surely investigate the case. But according to Reed, the officer who arrived that afternoon told Reed to have Givens or Sonny call the OPD themselves, and though he made a report, the officer said the matter would likely not be investigated.

Frustrated, Reed drove to the place Givens said Sonny could be found. Recognizing him from the photo taken at Custom Alloy, Reed pulled up next to Sonny on his usual street corner and asked if he had taken the copper. Sonny said he had.

“He readily admitted to stealing our stuff,” Reed said. “He said that he was sorry it was going to cost us so much and that he would not steal from our trucks again!”

Still perturbed by the OPD’s lack of interest in pursuing the case, Reed sent an e-mail describing his saga to several listservs for Oakland business owners.

“[Sonny] was easy to find. He readily admitted to the theft. The police department says that they probably will not pursue it,” Reed said in the e-mail. “He knew that there is no consequence to this kind of theft! And the Oakland Police confirmed it.”

The e-mail reached about a thousand businesspeople, Reed said, many of whom complained about the OPD’s reluctance to investigate. “It went all over North Oakland,” Reed said.

The correspondence reached the OPD, and about 30 hours after the theft, an officer contacted Reed to tell him the police department had decided to investigate the case.

“Normally, without identification of the guy, the report would just be filed,” said Yoell, adding that because the OPD is “overwhelmed and understaffed,” it is difficult to follow up on petty-theft cases.

Despite his initial frustration, Reed said he does not blame the OPD for originally declining to look into the theft.

“I’m not happy that that’s the process, but I certainly wouldn’t blame the police department,” he said, adding that he holds the Oakland City Council and other upper city staff managers responsible for under-funding law enforcement. This, he says, confines an understaffed police force to investigating “the big stuff that’s hard to pursue, and letting the little stuff go rampant.”

Yoell said the OPD often pursues violent-crime leads over theft cases. “If somebody is being injured or murdered, it takes precedence over theft of copper wire,” he said, citing Oakland’s high violent-crime rates. “But on the other hand, the community deserves a balanced response.”

There were over 4,000 burglaries in Oakland last year, Yoell said, and with just one theft investigator per police beat, it can be difficult for the police to solve many of the cases. Yoell said that while several police academy classes are under way and more officers will be hired, the city is not funding the police department in a manner that satisfactorily supports it.

“We’re constantly asking for more investigators. When we have the ability to staff detectives, we will look into [more cases],” he said. “It’s up to the city and what efforts they’ll take.”

The city’s efforts so far don’t impress Reed. Several calls to the office of Councilmember Jane Brunner, who represents the district where Reed’s shop is, were not immediately returned Wednesday.

“Oakland’s played that game for decades,” Reed said. “City councilmembers don’t come out and take crime reports. If every city councilmember had to go out and take crime reports for two weeks, that would probably change.”

Talia Kennedy is a student at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She can be reached at tmkennedy@berkeley.edu.