Epidemic of Metal Theft
This started out as a humorous thought when I heard of the bridge being stolen in Bosnia. That’s right, a bridge! It seems that on a seldom used roadway, a crew showed up and just started dismantling a bridge. They looked legitimate, so no one paid any attention. The crooks ended up selling it to a salvage yard! So, naturally my curiosity got the better of me and I had to dig a little deeper.
Turns out, this is hardly the first time something like this has occurred. In fact, in 1937, the worldly renowned Bridge of Sighs was stripped of it’s expensive lead roof. It wasn’t discovered until the tourists started complaining of being rained on!
Surely, I thought, this can’t go on frequently. Guess again. According to the U S News and World Report, this is a rapidly growing international problem. With the costs of building materials skyrocketing, the appeal for this as a quick profit for thieves is very appealing. In Brunei, thieves stole copper earthing cables and aluminum doors from more than 60 power substations. In Canada, thieves stole copper gutters and wiring from 4 prominent Quebec churches. Five miles of railroad tracks were stolen in Weimar, Germany. Japan reported over 5000 metal thefts in 2007. In the UK, a bridge used for handicapped access to parks was dismantled for its salvage value, and a church was stripped overnight of it’s copper roof. This final straw has the Police there setting up a major task force to halt this problem, second only to terrorism in it’s costs there.
And how about right here in the good old U.S.A.? Well, we are a little bit more creative. In California, an entire housing development had it’s new homes stripped of all aluminum siding overnight. Then the thieves returned within a week and just broke off all copper fixtures in the same homes! Being on the cutting edge of technology, sorry about the awful pun here, we are experiencing the cutting down of cell phone towers across the country, with the end result of the metal, called copper bricks, being sold to salvage yards. In Atlanta, everything from gutters, to air conditioners have been taken. Phoenix has seen a 400 percent increase in this type of crime since 2003! In Florida, over $18000 dollars worth of bronze and brass pots were pilfered from a cemetery. Another popular target? - Catalytic converters, which are sources of palladium and platinum. (Entire cars are easier to trace, even if they’re junk.)
But we can get back to the basics with the best of them. And an old childish prank, the stealing of manhole covers has now become a profitable business for metal thieves. These occur from Wisconsin to Ohio, 2 of the highest occurring rates, to all other areas of the country. This phenomenon has also gone global. China reported over 1800 of these thefts, and South Korea reports thefts in the hundreds. The list of smaller countries dealing with this is exhaustive.
What’s the problem? Again, according to U S News and World Report, many states have not required metal dealers to keep good purchasing records. However, last year 26 states passed legislation that toughened penalties for metal thefts and increased reporting requirements from the scrap yard dealers.
So the next time someone says to you, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there”, tell them “The bridge might not be there when we get there!”
