I just didn’t see the HVAC cabinet outside my house as a possible target for thieves. I knew it was full of expensive HVAC equipment but I had no idea that thieves would be so brazen as to steal it. I just didn’t realize that there are people out there so desperate they are willing to destroy my HVAC unit just to get their hands on some copper fittings. It’s really sort of hard to believe when you consider that. There are thieves that will not walk up to your house and destroy the HVAC equipment for some copper. Again, these are desperate people since they are bypassing thousands of dollars worth of heating and cooling components just to get to that bit of copper. But second hand HVAC equipment is much tougher to get rid of than copper. Still, it just blows my mind what these thieves do. First, they cut the power to the HVAC and then it’s just on. They yank out all this expensive HVAC equipment so they can get down to the copper fittings. I saw one house that this had happened to and it looked like the HVAC cabinet just blew up. There were HVAC equipment parts just strewn all over the yard. This is also smash and grab job so it goes fast. I’m actually taking the step to protect my residential HVAC equipment. There is a cage one can buy that fits over the HVAC cabinet and locks down to the concrete pad below. It’s still hard for me that it’s come to that but I’m for sure now locking my HVAC equipment up.