GRAYSON COUNTY, Tex. -- It is a growing crime across Texoma. Authorities on both sides of the Red River are regularly responding to copper theft calls. Now businesses and homeowners are saying no more.

A thief may steal $20 worth of copper, but it will cost about $5,000 to replace it. It's a heavy burden, so there are some with ways to hopefully reduce this type of crime.

T's becoming a familiar sight for air conditioning repairmen-- a compressor yanked from the side of a home, as thieves hunt for copper.

"They just come in and molest them. They just take everything," Nortex Air Conditioning owner Lynn Smith says.

Grayson/Collin County Electric Cooperative officials say they've had about $50,000 worth of copper stolen in the last two years at various substations.

"They will either cut the fence or cut the lock. In one case they were brazen enough to drive through the fence," general manager David McGinnis says.

McGinnis said enough is enough, by installing surveillance equipment and fiber alarms at each of their substations, and it's paying off. They recorded footage at their Melissa plant last week of a man cutting the lock on the gate and then driving his car onto the site.

"We’re afraid we're going to drive up on a substation and find someone who's been electricuted."

For homeowners, repairmen can now install the watchdog. It can hook up to a home security system.

The electrical substations could be really dangerous too, as 138,000 volts are entering the site and 7,200 are leaving, but it only takes 120 volts to be fatal.