For some Atlanta-area businesses and homeowners, the great “repair versus replace” debate is being decisively settled by an unexpected third party: copper thieves. Two men pulled into the driveway with a truck, took the a/c unit “within six to seven minutes,” and took off. In another case, thieves hit a southeast Atlanta complex, stealing a/c units and leaving some vulnerable families to slug it through the intense heat of a Georgia summer. Fox 5 Atlanta reports the thieves hit at least six units before apartment maintenance workers discovered they had been stripped for condensers and copper. On July 6, two women broke into an Atlanta home and threatened homeowners with a gun while one stole copper from the a/c.