Sewer grates keep disappearing in one San Francisco neighborhood

Chris Hill, a resident in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood, was walking home last month when he saw a neighbor helping his dog that had just fallen into an open storm drain. The missing sewer grate, he later learned, was part of a growing theft problem in San Francisco, and Bernal Heights appears to be the latest target. 

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“It was just kind of like, oh this poor dog and why are people doing this? How bizarre is it? Why would people want these little lids?” Hill told SFGATE, recalling his walk home.

Kristen Irgens-Moller, who lives with Hill on Peralta Avenue, told SFGATE that also noticed eight missing grates in a row in her neighborhood several weeks ago. She thought city workers could’ve been doing maintenance, but when she called 311, she learned that someone had stolen the grates. 

Who’s taking the small, square grates remains a mystery as of now, but residents told Mission Local that surveillance cameras have shown a man, whom they believe to be the same thief, repeatedly stealing them in the middle of the night. Also unknown is why the person is taking them, especially when the metals in the grates have little value. 

“I thought about waking up at 2 a.m. to try to catch him,” one resident, Karen Cook, told Mission Local. “Just to follow him around and see where he goes.” 

The missing grates are more than just a danger for small dogs. One of the biggest inconveniences is that in accordance with city law, residents are legally responsible for paying to replace the grates. 

According to the law, property owners are required to maintain the sidewalk because if someone is hurt or property is damaged, the owner can be held legally responsible. 

Rachel Gordon, a spokesperson for San Francisco Public Works, told SFGATE that when the grates go missing, the department sends out street inspectors to assess the sidewalk hazards. Property owners are then given a 30-day notice to replace the grates, which must be purchased and installed themselves.

“We don’t want people to get hurt, whether it’s dogs or people, especially because people are on their phones a lot when they’re walking now,” Gordon said. “… It’s not a break the bank, but it is an expense, and it is a hassle to replace them.”

Some residents told Mission Local that in recent months, they’ve paid to replace the grates, which cost more than $10, only for them to be stolen again shortly after. Similarly, Hill told SFGATE that when he talked to his neighbor about the missing grate, he learned she had also been told the city would not replace it because the cost fell to the property owner.

Gordon said on some occasions, residents don’t file a police report and just replace the grates themselves, with some even installing tamper-resistant screws, tough glue or other anti-theft mechanisms.

“Some people have sawed off the heads of their screws, and then they have to push them through when they want to open the sewer vent cover,” she said. 

Gordon said the theft isn’t new and has “gone in waves in the different neighborhoods” over the past several years, with Bernal Heights being the latest  “hot spot.” Nancy Crowley, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, confirmed to SFGATE that the utility has received multiple complaints about stolen sewer vent covers. 

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Officials have not detailed why the sewer grates have seemingly been disappearing more often in recent weeks, but in February, the San Francisco Police Department urged the public to be aware of similar thefts throughout the city. The department said more than 400 city utility covers have been stolen, including metal covers that belonged to the city’s public utilities commission.

SFPD spokesperson Paulina Henderson confirmed at least two instances of theft in Bernal Heights: one in front of a home on Macedonia Street in May and another on Montcalm Street in April. She said the motive behind the thefts is still under investigation. 

“If these incidents are related, our investigations look to confirm this as a series being committed by the same person or persons,” Henderson said. “These cases are currently active and open investigations.”

The unusual thefts aren’t limited to San Francisco. Similar incidents have been reported in North Carolina, New York and Vermont. In 2020, police in a Vermont community theorized the stolen sewer grates were being sold for scrap metal, WPTZ-YV reported. 

Though officials still haven’t nailed down a motive for the San Francisco thefts, residents, such as Irgens-Moller, are puzzled because some of the neighborhood’s grates are largely made of less-valuable metals like aluminum or tin.

“The thing that’s weird is that some of them are cast iron. You can’t do very much,” she said. “… Some of them are stainless steel, which is kind of insane.” 

Some of the sewer grates in the area are made of brass, which is partially made of copper and has some value, said Randy Ly, a supervisor at Zarc Recycling, one of the closest recycling centers to Bernal Heights. 

“They’re copper, so there is some value to it. I think that I think not just here but [around the] country, I think they’re having increased value,” Ly told SFGATE. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, copper is worth $6.15 per pound and brass is worth about $2.90 per pound. Stainless steel is worth approximately $0.42 per pound and cast iron is worth about six cents per pound. 

Copper theft in particular has been a rampant problem in the Bay Area and across the country, with thieves targeting lampposts, sidewalk plaques and critical public infrastructure including cables used for telecommunications. Damage from copper wire theft has shut down 911 and internet service, caused a DMV office near the Oakland Coliseum to close temporarily last year and disrupted Caltrain service in San Jose.