Insured metal theft claims in 2015 were down 23 percent from 2014 levels and 29 percent over the past two years.

According to a report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), in 2013, a total of 13,626 metal theft claims were processed. That number dropped by seven percent to 12,621 in 2014 and took a 23 percent decline in 2015 to 9,692 — a total reduction of 29 percent over the past two years.

During this three-year period, 35,961 insurance claims for the theft of copper, bronze, brass or aluminum were handled — 35,134 of them (98 percent) involving copper. When copper theft claims frequency is compared to the monthly average price of copper, there is a statistically-significant correlation between the two.

While the slowdown in thefts is encouraging, dangerous copper theft incidents continue to occur from Hawaii to Indiana to Massachusetts.

The top five states for metal theft claims over this period were Ohio (4,042), Pennsylvania (2,819), New Jersey (2,585), New York (2,101) and Texas (1,833).

The top five Core-Based Statistical Areas generating the most metal theft claims were New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA (2,136), Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD (1,809), Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI (1,449), Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD (890) and Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA (868).