Combating Copper Theft From EV Chargers

After you've done your part excavating and prepping some jobsites and building commences, the owners and workers left behind have to do their best to prevent the theft of materials — and copper is a frequent target.

The value of copper has increased 49% in just 18 months, according to security platform company Farmblox.

Just because you're off the jobsite doesn't mean you're off the hook. If you have charging infrastructure for EVs or electric construction equipment, guess what? 

You've got copper.

Growing thievery

Copper theft has emerged as a growing challenge for EV charging operators. Across California and other states, thieves are increasingly targeting charging cables for the copper inside, leaving stations unusable and creating costly repairs for network operators. 

Industry reports indicate that although thieves often recover only a small amount of scrap copper from each cable, operators can face repair costs exceeding $8,000 per charger — not including lost revenue and frustration while chargers remain offline.

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The challenge has become particularly visible in California, where charging stations throughout the Los Angeles area have experienced repeated cable theft incidents.

In many cases, drivers arrive expecting to charge their vehicles only to find chargers disabled, creating disruptions for both EV owners and charging network operators.

As EV infrastructure expands nationwide and into your equipment yards and jobsites, protecting charging assets has become increasingly critical to maintaining reliability and uptime.

Thwarting the copper robbers

Enter Farmblox, a company that gives operators tools to build their own field automation systems and connect sensors and equipment to a simple app to fix problems and automate tasks.

The company worked with rural crime expert (yes, that's a skill) Bobby Rader to develop Cop-R-Lock, which was originally developed to help farmers fight rising agricultural crime. 

I'm thinking there's got to be a TV drama in here somewhere leaning on Rader's 15 years investigating infrastructure and rural infrastructure crime.

How to stop an equipment thief

The system leverages Farmblox's sensor network to detect suspicious activity and instantly alert operators, even in remote locations with limited connectivity.

Following strong adoption in agriculture, the platform has increased protected areas by more than 2,200% between Q3 2025 and Q1 2026, while Cop-R-Lock deployments grew by more than 300,000% in just six months across operations nationwide, the company says.

The system uses Farmblox's remote automation and monitoring platform to track infrastructure activity in real time. If cable tampering, enclosure breaches, or suspicious activity are detected, an alarm sounds on-site and operators receive immediate alerts through Farmblox's mobile and desktop app, enabling rapid response.

"Copper theft is no longer just a problem for farms and industrial facilities. It's becoming a real threat to the reliability of EV charging infrastructure," says Nathan Rosenberg, CEO and co-founder of Farmblox.

"The same challenges we saw in agriculture exist in EV charging networks: remote assets, limited oversight, and the potential for enormous secondary losses from a single theft event," Rosenberg says.

"Our goal is to give operators real-time visibility and immediate alerts so they can stop incidents as chargers go offline and drivers are impacted."

Farmblox is based in Santa Cruz, California.