Sounds very Post-Apocalyptic
Very Cyberpunk/After the Holocaust/Nuclear Aftermath.
Gangs roaming the landscape scavenging the metal out of anything they can find, like in all the "best" post-apocalypse movies.
The irony is, if they bugger up enough of the infrastructure, they could probably create the "collapse" that would plunge civilisation into the anarchy usually portrayed in such movies.
Great premise for a new film: the collapse comes when thieving mongrels do more damage to the telecommunications infrastructiure, power networks and rail services than the various companies can afford to repair in a timely fashion. Our information/electricity-dependant society goes down the gurgler and those same gangs are then roaming the devastated landscape scavenging any metal they can find. Real "Mad Max" potential.
Saying "oh, well, they can just run cable to the door to discourage copper thieves" but in reality that costs in materials and labour - both of which have to be paid for which means the telco takes a loss and then charges its customers more for the upgraded lines.
In reality, such theft means a serious impact on us, the consumers and a lot of extra work (read more expense as extra contractors are called in and more material is ordered) for the telcos etc who already have a scheduled upgrade plan to follow and now have to contend with unsheduled upgrades in order to keep the infrastructure working.
In previous posts, deaths have been mentioned due to exposed live wires and missing manhole covers. The potential is there for deaths to occur because someone couldn't phone the ambulance in time or their home medical alarm could not be monitored etc.
I'm not seriously suggesting that stealing copper is going to reach the point that it threatens the stability of our society, but it certainly can and does have a serious impact.
Perhaps a few huge-looking cyborgs stomping around the place with huge effing guns and just shooting the thieves on sight would be a suitably "post-apocalyptic"-style deterrent to repeat offending...