In New Iberia, a businessman named Dr. Adel Malahmeh owns nearly 90 buildings across Iberia Parish and surrounding areas. Recently, he has faced a challenging situation as his properties have become the target of theft, specifically his A/C condenser units. Over the past month, nine of his units have been stolen, causing significant financial losses and inconvenience to his business operations.
The theft of A/C units is not only impacting Malahmeh financially but also affecting the comfort of his patients and customers. The stolen units contain copper, which is valuable and often sold for scrap metal or on the black market. The thieves are causing thousands of dollars in damages by breaking into the units and stealing the copper cores. This has left Malahmeh with no choice but to replace the entire A/C systems, both inside and outside of the buildings.
Despite filing an incident report with the New Iberia Police, Malahmeh and his attorney, Frank Barber, believe that more could be done to address the ongoing issue of copper theft. The people who are buying the stolen copper are not cooperating with law enforcement to help prevent future thefts. This lack of collaboration is making it difficult for Malahmeh to protect his properties and provide a comfortable environment for his customers.
As a result of the A/C unit thefts, Malahmeh is worried about losing customers due to the lack of air conditioning in his properties. He fears that the ongoing robberies may impact his business reputation and drive customers away, especially during hot weather conditions. Malahmeh hopes that the authorities and local community can come together to address the surge of robberies and prevent further losses to his businesses.
Malahmeh’s properties have been providing essential services to residents in Iberia Parish for years now, including medical care and housing options. Without proper functioning A/C systems, these services could be severely impacted or even halted altogether.
In response to this challenge, Malahmeh has taken steps to improve security measures at his properties. He has installed surveillance cameras at each location and increased security patrols around them.
However, despite these efforts, malicious individuals continue to target his properties with little regard for their importance or impact on those they serve.
The community needs to come together to address this issue head-on before it becomes unmanageable for businesses like Dr. Adel Malahmeh’s that provide critical services in our area.
