[MSN] It's a thieves' market for scrap metal

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It's a thieves' market for scrap metal
By Denise Hollinshed
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/31/2006

Thomas "T.C." Conner clears scrap metal from the truck of Robert Cox 
Photo:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisstatenews/story/C5
A77E83E088F13C862571800016615E?OpenDocument

The first hint that the church had been targeted by scrap metal thieves came
on Easter Sunday, when the three five-ton air conditioner units blew nothing
but hot air.

Thieves, it turned out, had stripped the valuable copper tubing from the
units. Not until a week later did the Rev. Cornell Brown realize that the
thieves had also made off with the aluminum guttering and downspouts at his
Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in East St. Louis. The problem has
become so bad in East St. Louis that Brown and several other deacons now go
by the church at night to check on things to make sure that thieves don't
strike again.

"The copper and aluminum prices are up," Brown said. "You find people who
are drug addicts that have found this as a way to feed their habit. That's
terrible."

East St. Louis Police Capt. Lenzie Stewart said similar thefts had been
reported at 53 churches, schools and state buildings. But it's not just East
St. Louis. Scrap metal thefts are a problem throughout the St. Louis area. 

A St. Louis police detective said such thefts have been mushrooming in
recent months.

"We're seeing a ton of it now," said the detective, who requested anonymity.

The reason is that scrap metal prices, in general, have doubled, he added.
The scrap metal is being stolen from all over - construction sites,
construction storage yards and facilities. Police report thefts of sections
of large underground cables, for the metal, and even the thefts of beer kegs
behind taverns.

Said Brown, "I've seen people pushing carts with aluminum, not knowing where
they were getting it from. The deacon and I saw a guy smashing aluminum
gutters up. Then a couple of days later, our gutters were missing."

St. Louis police have conducted surveillances on scrap metal yards.

"The scrap metal operators are supposed to keep records - and they do for
the legitimate sellers," the detective said. "It's the other ones. It's such
a problem because how do you trace scrap metal? There's no serial numbers on
it. There's no IDs on it."

Stewart believes vagrants and crackheads are stealing the stuff.

He believes the thefts will stop if scrap metal dealers require
identification from sellers and jot down each sale.

Stewart said his officers had caught thieves melting copper. "They made a
fire and were melting the metal so we couldn't identify where it was coming
from."

Typically, Stewart said, the most they can charge a person with is
trespassing. Often, the thefts occur at vacant buildings where the owners
can't easily be located and the buildings lack a "no trespassing" sign. The
thieves haul their take to scrap metal dealers, where the loot is weighed
and the thieves walk away with cash.

What's behind the thefts is the rising price of copper, brass and aluminum
and the demand for scrap metal in China and Taiwan, some say. On Wednesday,
depending on the grade, copper sold for $3 to $3.10 a pound at Ace Scrap
Metals, 5900 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis. Aluminum sold for 70 cents to $1
a pound, and brass went for 90 cent to $1.75, depending on the grade.

Robert Cox, 47, of St. Louis, said it had taken him a month to collect
pounds of aluminum siding and old gutter to sell to another scrap dealer,
Top Metal Buyers, 808 Walnut Avenue, East St. Louis. He got $632 for his
take. He said he got the stuff by advertising in the newspaper as a hauler.

Rudy Rios, the manager at Top Metal, says he doesn't ask where people get
the metals.

"I buy from dealers all day, from small guys to big guys," said Rios, who
has been in the business since 1979. "People are funny about telling where
they get it from, and I don't ask."

One man brought in two aluminum car wheels and received $28. Another weighed
three aluminum wheels at 71 pounds and was paid $50.

Rios says he doesn't have any problem with police. "Everything I buy is out
in the open. I don't hide anything. A lot of dealers buy and hide, but I
don't."

Bill Bryan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. 

http://www.stltoday.com/