PRICE TOWNSHIP — A big reward is being offered in the Poconos after thieves hit a ski resort several times, taking about a mile’s worth of copper wires, and that’s only the beginning.
Alpine Mountain ski area near Canadensis was bought by new owners just a few months ago. They’re working to fix up the resort.
But over the past few weeks, thousands of dollars’ worth of copper wiring has been stolen.
The amount of damage we have to show you is unbelievable.
Workers are busy making big improvements at Alpine Mountain ski area. New ownership took over just this past April near Canadensis.
Over the past few weeks, big problems have popped up.
“On about five or six separate occasions over a two-week span of time, the perpetrators have come in and stole approximately a mile worth of what is known as 4 aught copper wire,” said Alpine Mountain owner Kevin Fabiano Sr.
Fabiano says he first noticed the problems here in a power box and says vandals ripped off about a mile of copper wire that carried power to ski lifts.
But that’s only the beginning.
Maintenance worker Walt Drake says his backhoe was hot-wired and then used to do more damage.
“They just cut everything here, hot-wired it, used it over there, they used one of our torches and cut a big box over there.”
Even bigger power lines were cut and the vandals cut power to Alpine’s snow-making machine.
“The contention is it’s someone who has incredible, incredible knowledge of this particular resort, not somebody that just got lucky and knew were to disconnect all these different things.”
The owners at Alpine Mountain say they’re still moving forward with the renovations and they’re going to do whatever it takes to find out who stole all of this, offering a $10,000 reward.
“This is never going to dissuade us. I mean, this is a project that we want to have go. You see there, over there constructing the ice arena right now.”
The resort’s new owner says he hired armed guards to patrol at night while state police are working to track down leads.
Fabiano says he’ll do whatever it takes to replace all of this and catch whoever is responsible.
“I just want to find if we can catch these people and punish them for what they’re doing.”
Before Kevin Fabiano bought the property, Alpine Mountain Resort was sold at auction by a property management group but the bidder was unable to secure the finances.
If you have information about the copper thefts at Alpine Mountain, you should call State Police at Swiftwater.
