The crane forms part of the Sysco (Sydney Steel Corporation) complex that for decades dominated industry in the Canadian coastal town. Joel MacLean, chief operating officer of Nova Scotia Lands, the state company that is managing the renovation of the old steel plant, told the Cape Breton Post, “It’s not so much the value of the copper, but the thieves don’t realize the damage they did. It’s in the order of a half-million dollars and it’s unfortunate because most of that is not the value of the copper wire.”
Cape Breton regional police believe that the thieves must have approached the pier by boat, as the site is secured on all land sides. They must then have turned off the power to the crane, and spent up to eight hours stripping cables and wires from the structure. They are estimated to have taken about a third of the crane’s cabling, or almost five kilometres of copper wire.
The crane and pier is leased by Provincial Energy Ventures. Although the crane had not been used since the steel company closed in 2001, it had been kept in working order.
