Typical: Business Owner Blames Scrap Dealers For Enabling Metal Theft

[jeff of pa]

Don't blame the guilty, Blame the legal buisness

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - Late Thursday night thieves got onto the roof of Cowboy Maloney's Electric City on Interstate 55 Frontage road and other surrounding businesses. They stripped the copper out of all the air conditioning units. "They got a grand total of somewhere between $300 to $400 worth of copper. They did between $50,000 to $75,000 worth of damage to heating and air conditioning systems and of course they got off scott free," said Cowboy Maloney's owner Con Maloney.

Stronger laws are only good as long as they are enforced," said Maloney. "Somewhere, somehow, somebody ought to be figuring out who is buying this copper. They are the ones who should be going to prison for a long time and give back the $70,000 loss we all got out here."

According to the Red Book a 1916-D Mercury Dime is worth Thousands.

Maybe every time one is Stolen The Producers of The Red Book
should be Blamed

http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=11871256

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[snake35]

Great point jeff!

[sniffer]

that one makes a lot of sense. don't fix the problem, find someone to blame
how did they get on the roof ? ladder maybe ?
evidently he didn't think it was worth stealing, until someone stole it

[davest]

to me, and maybe I'm mistaken but. Where the hell was the security or even the police? Don't they even do drivebys? I mean, to strip a/c unitis requires some time. Ya just don't go up on a roof, grab a copper line and start twisting, do you? Hell, I'm in the construction biz and to take the panels off the machines, sawzall the tubes, all the while avoiding the electricity, in the dark no less, seems like a lot of risk for pennies. And I'm aware that thieves aren't the brightest bulb in the pack.

[sniffer]

commercial lines on a roof don't always enter the building right away, some travel quite a distance before they go in.
with a bolt cutter, you could cut lines in seconds and remove the pipes and be gone in minutes

[arnoldziffel]

most scrap yards by me require an id when you sell them scrap. however, this is only helpful if the thief decided to scrap in the same area as he stole it from. and then, how do you identify it? I have had wire stolen from me. even if they decided to scrap it locally, they would have cut it up and stripped it. thus making it impossible to track it and to know it was stolen.

[DigginThePast]

most scrap yards by me require an id when you sell them scrap. however, this is only helpful if the thief decided to scrap in the same area as he stole it from. and then, how do you identify it? I have had wire stolen from me. even if they decided to scrap it locally, they would have cut it up and stripped it. thus making it impossible to track it and to know it was stolen.

Yeppers. Scrap yards around here keep track of who brings in what.



I'd be angry too if I were that business owner but I sure as hell wouldn't be blaming anyone but the person(s) that stole it.

[oneeye]

most scrap yards by me require an id when you sell them scrap. however, this is only helpful if the thief decided to scrap in the same area as he stole it from. and then, how do you identify it? I have had wire stolen from me. even if they decided to scrap it locally, they would have cut it up and stripped it. thus making it impossible to track it and to know it was stolen.

Yeppers. Scrap yards around here keep track of who brings in what.

And what are they doing with this information? Are they providing to a government agency? If they are, then they are most likely breaking privacy laws. Gathering information on me will find you with new problems.
Dan

[arnoldziffel]

most scrap yards by me require an id when you sell them scrap. however, this is only helpful if the thief decided to scrap in the same area as he stole it from. and then, how do you identify it? I have had wire stolen from me. even if they decided to scrap it locally, they would have cut it up and stripped it. thus making it impossible to track it and to know it was stolen.

Yeppers. Scrap yards around here keep track of who brings in what.

And what are they doing with this information? Are they providing to a government agency? If they are, then they are most likely breaking privacy laws. Gathering information on me will find you with new problems.
Dan

Actually, I don't know if they even keep the info. I think they just check the id and hand it back. I am not sure though, i'd have to check it out.

[Shortstack]

Jeff:
The REST of the story on that copper theft is this. The copper lines and coils were found at a local recyclers yard and the recycler claimed he didn't know exactly WHO had brought the material. There was a LARGE amount of stolen copper wire, pipes, etc found in that same yard and the owner's excuse was the same, "he couldn't be expected to keep records on every person selling scrap there."
Lack of records was the big complaint from victims of copper thefts. I mean, someone stole copper cable from some of the street light poles on an Interstate Bypass. Yep...........no records of sellers.
The laws have changed. I think that NOW metal buyers have to keep a record of the sellers of certain metals.....copper in particular.
I have no love lost on the Cowboy Maloney stores, but, in this case, he was right.

[snake35]

In Ohio the yards copy your drivers licence or state i.d. The yard I deal with gives you a print out of your scrap. They can see in a second how much of what I sold them two ago. (that is when they computerized) So at least here in northern Ohio the industry is policing itself.