Refrigeration systems ruined after copper stolen at Uptown Grocery

EDMOND, Okla. (KFOR) — Police are searching for thieves who reportedly stole copper from a local grocery store and destroyed their refrigerators.

The 911 call came in on Friday morning.

"There's copper thieves on the roof of the store right now," said a refrigeration contractor on the 911 call.

"We got a call from our security system that notified us that there was something wrong with the refrigeration," said Shane Kennedy, the store director at Uptown Grocery Edmond.

Just after 6 a.m., the store's refrigeration contractor called Edmond Police.

"I think they're using the gas line on the back of the building to get up and down," said the contractor on the call.

There is some good news. All food in the refrigerated and frozen sections was saved.

"By the time we got here, we called AWG who supplies us with groceries and they had reefer trucks here within 45 minutes. And we were able to start getting all of that stuff unloaded and put on the reefer trucks," said Kennedy.

However, the appliances were not able to be saved. It's costing the store about $150,000 to fix everything.

"Had to put whole new units on the roof that were destroyed. You had to replace all the copper tubing and then you had to charge it back with freon or with refrigerant," said Kennedy.

One customer was shocked it happened in the first place.

"Wow, that's really bad timing. This is my neighborhood store so I'm here a lot," said Sara Leahy, a customer.

Leahy also said she was at the store the morning of the crime.

"I was just here on Friday morning and did all of my shopping pretty well, so it didn't affect me, but that's crazy," said Leahy.

Again, the store didn't lose any food during the crime and everything is running as usual. 

Edmond Police are still looking for suspects.