The Villages Daily Sun

From wiring to manhole covers to catalytic converters to automobiles ... metal is valuable and its theft is on the rise

DAILY SUN

Thieves violated hallowed ground meant to be the final resting place for men and women who put their lives on the line for our country.

On June 5, unidentified criminals stole nine rolls of copper wire from a pavilion under construction at Florida National Cemetery, delaying completion of a new area sorely needed as World War II, Korean War and Vietnam veterans come to the end of their lives.

It’s not only the desecration of the cemetery that disturbs U.S. Army veteran and Village of Glenbrook resident Pete Carston, but the implications of the crime.

“It’s sacred ground to us,” the Veterans’ Memorial Post 347 Honor Guard commander said. “These are veterans that deserve a proper burial at a national cemetery; with this theft that’s going on, it’s delaying the opening of a new area … and that’s a shame, because that area is needed.”

Metal thefts of all types are on the rise; moreover, in the past year these thefts have moved away from construction sites and into people’s everyday lives. Thieves will take any metal they can find: copper wiring in air conditioning units, manhole covers, catalytic converters from cars and trucks — even entire vehicles.

Local agencies such as the Marion County Sheriff’s Office have stepped up enforcement, but the trend is unmistakable.

“It’s a worldwide thing, and I don’t know where it’s going to stop,” said Gary Bush, a Marion County sheriff’s detective specifically assigned to metal thefts.

Economics 101

The thefts come as the prices of metals surge and the value of the dollar slides.

In the past five years, the price of a metric ton of scrap iron and steel has quadrupled and the price of copper has nearly tripled.

It wasn’t a trend that was anticipated.

“No one saw this coming,” Bruce Savage, vice president of communications at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. in Washington, D.C., said. “If I had, I wouldn’t be sitting in this office.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, five years ago the dollar was worth 19 cents more than today, which drove the price of U.S. steel, for example, to levels that made it a hard sell in foreign markets.

However, the recent drop in the value of the dollar has made steel more affordable worldwide.

Brazil, Russia, India and China all have taken advantage of the American economy’s slump and are purchasing as much steel as they can for both domestic use and for export, Savage said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. demand for recycled steel has increased because steel scrap is much more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than manufacturing steel from raw materials.

“It’s economics 101,” Savage said. “The supplies are not keeping up with the demand.”

What metal recyclers

are doing

With the rise in metal thefts, metal recyclers nationwide are taking extra steps to prevent people from selling them stolen property.

“It’s very serious, and we want to be part of the solution,” Savage said.

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc., a national organization that represents about 50 percent of all metal recyclers, encourages businesses to keep extensive records of every transaction, Savage said.

In the past, scrap metal thefts appealed to criminals because an entire vehicle, for example, can be shredded in less than a minute and rendered untraceable. In the current hot market for metal, thieves are targeting new sources and taking greater risks.

“I think, with the prices as high as they are, people are making more of an effort,” said Michael Bianculli, co-owner of Ocala Recycling. The business recycles up to 500 tons of metal a day.

As individuals bring them more metal, businesses are making a greater effort to ensure that the property isn’t stolen.

Ocala Recycling has begun coordinating efforts with Marion County sheriff’s investigators to identify stolen products.

Collaboration between the company’s ferrous manager, Billy Warbach, and Bush has resulted in the arrest of more than 30 people after they sold the business metal that was determined to be stolen.

“We’re working together, and we’re getting results,” Bush said. “It’s not everything we’d like to recover, but I’d like to think we’re making a dent.”

But scrap-metal businesses and law enforcement cannot solve the problem on their own. The public can play a significant role in reducing the stream of stolen metal making its way to recyclers.

Neighbors helping neighbors

The man walking up his driveway the morning of May 6 surprised Jack Taylor, but didn’t alarm him.

“I thought it was kind of strange to begin with, anybody being out there that time of morning,” the Bushnell resident said.

As the man approached, he asked Taylor who owned the mobile home across the road and if he and his two friends could go and look around.

Despite the “For Sale” sign in front of the home, Taylor told the man he couldn’t grant permission for the trio to set foot on the premises and advised them to contact the owner.

“He said, ‘Well, we just want to go look around. We’re not going to steal anything or nothing,’” Taylor recalled. “I told him trespassing is trespassing.”

Thirty minutes later, when Taylor had finished mowing his lawn, he noticed the people hadn’t left.

“I could hear them banging and clanging around the back, and I said, ‘They aren’t looking,’” Taylor said.

Taylor went to the home and told the men to leave or he was going to call 911.

“They were very respectful, they said, ‘Yes, sir, we’re leaving right now.’ They didn’t give me trouble or anything else,” Taylor said. “But when I saw him walking out with the tools, I knew they weren’t looking anymore.”

Taylor called 911 and provided the dispatcher with the trio’s vehicle’s tag number and description.

When police arrived at the home it appeared the group had attempted to steal the air-conditioning unit, according to a deputy’s report.

A little more than an hour later, deputies pulled over the suspect vehicle and found not only the tools Taylor had observed but different types of wire and more than 20 receipts for copper sold at local metal recyclers, John Marshall, the Sumter County sheriff’s investigating detective, said.

“I wasn’t trying to get them in trouble, but I look at it as if it was my neighbors … what would I want them to do?” Taylor said.

Stricter penalties

During the past year, many law enforcement officers and metal recyclers have approached Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, to ask for his help in dealing with the spike in metal thefts, he said.

“It’s been a problem in the past,” Baker said. “This is not a new problem. It’s just become much worse.”

In April, Florida legislators unanimously approved a bill they hope will result in a decline in thefts. The bill, signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist on June 17, makes the theft of copper and other nonferrous metals a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, according to Kevin Sweeny, legislative assistant to Sen. Charlie Dean, R-Inverness.

“We feel by taking these measures we will be able to dramatically (reduce) the rate of copper theft in this state,” Baker said.

The bill also was in response to recent thefts of telephone and power lines that impeded 911 calls and shut down lifesaving medical equipment, Baker said.

According to Sumter Electric Cooperative Inc. spokesman Barry Bowman, SECO has experienced no major outages because of metal thefts, but he confirmed that thefts are on the rise.

“The price of copper is so high that people have actually taken extraordinary chances,” Bowman said, explaining that there have been attempts to steal live wires. “It is important that they make the penalties of that very severe … . It is going to save somebody’s life in Central Florida.”

Under current Florida law, metal recyclers must see photo identification and a copy of a driver’s license for anyone who sells them copper.

“It allows us to track somebody,” Baker said. “Copper wire doesn’t have serial numbers, but if it’s a similar type of wire that was stolen and you can place them at the scene of the theft, and that they sold that kind of copper in the same time period … (it helps) to build a case.”

Of course, stricter penalties can only work if suspects are arrested and convicted.

The elusive thief

“How do you show ownership of something?” Sumter County sheriff’s Detective Darin Segrest pointed out. “If I stop you, and you have a trailer full of tin or a trailer full of scrap metal or whatever the case may be — something that you are going to scrap out and sell — there is no serial number on these.

“You go to a scrap yard, and you pull (a list of) Sumter County residents who are scrapping, and you’re going to get a whole laundry list of names because it’s everybody doing it — it’s fast cash and there’s no way of tracing it.”

Segrest has worked on a number of metal theft cases during the past year, and most of them remain unsolved. In one case, all of the copper wiring was yanked out of a home, by thieves who destroyed drywall and whatever else stood in the way. In another case, all of the irrigation piping was stolen from a watermelon field. And large amounts of copper wire and scrap metal have disappeared from countless construction sites.

“It’s bad; that’s where we’re at,” Segrest said. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better, but hopefully we can get a few of these people in custody.”

Katie Tammen is a reporter with the Daily Sun. She can be reached at 753 -1119, ext. 9264, or katie.tammen@thevillagesmedia.com.