In hard times, people do whatever they feel they have to in order to get by. Thefts escalate and other people’s possessions start looking pretty good to those with few alternatives and less scruples. It’s gotten so bad recently, that the increase in sales prices of recycled metals (copper, iron, aluminum, etc) is causing a rash of thefts and burglaries across the nation.

The scrap metal market has increased due to the bad economy, along with the rising prices of raw materials. Recycled materials are easier (read=cheaper) to re-process into new products than starting from scratch, so many businesses have upped their prices for such materials, as a cost cutting measure.  This, in turn has triggered an increase in raw-metal thefts.

• Wiring and Pipe Companies – Many companies that make copper wire and pipes are finding that their storage areas, usually outside, are being broken into. The thefts are resulting in thousands of dollars of losses. Whole rolls of copper wire/tubing (some up to 7′ across) have just disappeared only to reappear as scrapped and destroyed metal at recycle centers.
• Auto Dealerships – Another hard-hit company, the new auto dealerships in particular have lost countless catalytic converters from fleets of vehicles that sit overnight on the lot. An individual catalytic converter can contain up to $250 in platinum, and takes a thief only a couple of minutes to get off the car (with a hack saw). Dealerships have come in after an ‘attack’ to find dozens of cars hit in a single night.
• Public Ironworks – As iron and steel have increased in price, so has the vandalization and theft of public iron and steel. Manhole covers are starting to disappear from streets of major cities, causing car problems and any public iron fences, statues, or other sources of metal are disappearing overnight.

Where Does it all Go?

Most of this scrap goes to the local recycling companies. Some of the savvier thiefs truck the ‘found’ recyclables to other cities or states to get around the increasing police and civil crackdowns. Generally, all of the items are destroyed before being turned in, to remove any ability to trace the materials back to the originating cities/municipalities. Unfortunately, even if the metal is recovered, it’s usually beyond any useful condition.

Some states are instituting measures to crack down on this practice. California in particular is trying to hit the thieves hard by requiring that anyone that brings in scrap be photographed, along with the scrap, and that payments will be delayed three days. We’ll see if this causes any decrease in the rate of theft.

What to Do?

For the normal person, there’s not much that need be done in particular to prevent theft. Parking your car in a garage or protected area. Make sure that any raw materials you might have on hand (piping, home renovation materials, etc) are secured at night.

The only thing of any major concern might be a home with an external air conditioning unit. It would be difficult to remove one of these units w/o being noticed, but on a house where the occupants are away for a few days, might return to find that repairman have ‘taken away’ the air conditioning unit to be ‘fixed’. That’s a goodly chunk of aluminum sitting outside the windows.

For the company owner, the same thing applies. Follow your normal security procedures, but be aware that theft of these kind of items is on the rise. Think twice about outside storage, and transfer more valuable materials into covered storage.