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Thieves Target Metal Items For Cash
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Published: July 26, 2008
No windows were broken, no electronics stolen and no jewelry taken after thieves struck Mark and Barbara Holt's home recently. The only thing missing were the couple's aluminum gutters.
Looking to cash in on soaring metal prices, brazen thieves across the nation are stripping aluminum siding off houses, ripping the plumbing from public restrooms, dismantling air-conditioning units for copper coils, snipping catalytic converters off cars and prying manhole covers from city streets.
Law enforcement offices in Florida and elsewhere have been bombarded with complaints of increasingly strange thefts. With prices rising as worldwide demand for aluminum, copper, steel and other metal booms, the U.S. economic downturn has prodded more people to seek quick cash by selling stolen goods to scrap yards.
"We were very shocked," said Barbara Holt, who works as a nurse in Charlotte County. "We couldn't imagine who would want to steal gutters."
In Port Charlotte on Tuesday, thieves hauled an aluminum boat from a yard in the morning. Last weekend in Bradenton, plumbing fixtures were raided from a McDonald's bathroom. Near Venice recently, copper wiring was pulled from street lamps along Jackson Road, causing $10,000 in damage.
Copper prices soared a year ago, spurring a rash of thefts nationwide. Now, aluminum, steel and iron prices are climbing, too.
Although metal prices are going through the roof, it still takes a lot of scrap material to make much money. And the value of stolen goods typically represents a fraction of the cost to victims.
For the Holts, who had their gutters ripped off, the damage totaled about $4,000.
The thieves probably gained less than $100 after selling the gutters to a scrap yard, said Bill Twardosky, who runs Venice Scrap and Metal with his father.
The going rate for aluminum in gutters is about 65 cents a pound. Still, that's double the price two years ago, Twardosky said.
More valuable metals, such as copper, have tripled in price. This week, Twardosky paid $3.25 a pound for copper, up from $1.50 last year and $1 two years ago.
The soured economy is increasing metal scavenging. Some legally scour curbsides for discarded items; others resort to stealing.
"There's a lot of people who aren't working, so they're scrapping," Twardosky said.
To cut down on crime and reduce exposure to charges of accepting stolen goods, many scrap yards, Twardosky's included, require sellers to show identification if the sale exceeds $10.
"There's so many people out there not working, you don't know who's out there stealing," Twardosky said.
Sheriff's deputies rely heavily on scrap yards to intercept criminal metal dealers, but some scrap yards chop and crush material so fast it is hard to trace.
When Scott Everingham of Port Charlotte realized his aluminum boat was missing at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, he called a nearby scrap yard and the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. By the time he located his boat, it had been cut in two.
"This was a nice-looking boat," Everingham said. "The guy got $46 for it."
Charlotte County deputies recently arrested a man who sold a stolen washer and dryer to a scrap yard. The yard kept detailed records of its purchases and provided officers information.
But for the thieves to profit, there has to be a market for stolen goods somewhere, law enforcement officers said.
"When we see certain things getting stolen that didn't get stolen before, that means there's a market for those items," said Randy Warren, spokesman for the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.
While metal thefts have been rising over the past year, criminals are getting more creative and desperate, said Chuck Lesaltato, Sarasota County Sheriff's Office spokesman.
Items on police blotters include steel boat trailers, weed trimmers, pool filters, water softeners, appliances in vacant rental homes, bronze plaques and vases from graveyards.
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