Not just Brooklyn. A friend of mine had the copper downspouts stolen from off the sides of his house a couple of weeks ago.

When I lived in Philly 10 years ago, copper downspouts were being stolen from buildings by gangs. I read that recently, due to a number of factors, the price of copper has risen recently, providing more incentive to take it.

This is common in Detroit and people have even been awakened by people ripping the aluminium siding off their house.

A shuttered downtown hotel had the copper roof ripped off, only to show up on the roof of a new hotel in Texas.

My neighbour had the downspout ripped of her garage earlier this year.

It's a big problem in BC as well.

Oregon caves was shut down for awhile because thieves stole some of the 20+ miles of power line that goes out to them.

Locally, I have had a good number of aluminum thefts, from outdoor bleachers. And one would think that metal dealers would be wary of a "receiving stolen materials" rap. It IS getting that way here, more and more and it's getting harder to fence metals that are obviously useful in whatever form they are in.