Verizon is in the US, where metal theft is an equal-opportunity crime pursued by folks of every race and ethnicity.
My painter/plasterer wanted to paint my aluminum1 gutters2 with a faux-copper finish; he did his that way, using a paint that contains powdered copper and an acid wash to immediately give it a patina. I turned him down, since I really don't want to come home from vacation to find some idiot's ripped the gutters off my house thinking they really were (solid) copper.
Similarly, the metal roof installers around here still advertise copper panel as an option. Looks beautiful, but you just know someone will be trying to pry it off in the middle of the night.
When my brother bought his house, on the day between closing and moving in, someone smashed a basement window and cut out all the exposed copper pipes. Flooded the basement in the process, of course.
Had a lot of catalytic-converter thefts around these parts, too, until the legislature tightened reporting requirements for scrap-metal dealers and made it harder to sell the converters to them.
1"Aluminium", for those hailing from surplus-vowel districts.
2"Eavestroughs and downspouts", for those hailing from ... wherever those terms are more popular.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
