Copper is critical to the production of clean energy technology, but a global shortage is driving its price to record heights. A thriving black market has emerged, encouraging criminals to risk their lives to steal it. As Officer Steph Brand explains: "the damage itself can't be quantified. If someone steals a little bit of copper, it impacts the transport industry, the electricity industry... the problem itself is massive." And it runs rife in Johannesburg, where over 30% of the population are out of work. Meanwhile, locals who feel abandoned by authorities are taking matters into their own hands, forming an armed vigilante patrol who attack thieves with whips and batons. As mother and volunteer Faith Nkosi explains; "The legal system is failing us. Nobody is looking out for us. It's time that we take responsibility of our own community." Perhaps most shocking is the background of some of the thieves: as an informant explains; "some of them, they used to be in the army, in security. And some of them, they used to be police officers."