LAKELAND | If you thought the commodity markets were just for Wall Street financiers, think again. Crooks are watching the markets, too, and making more than a pretty penny in Polk County.
The prices of scrap metals are at an all-time high and so are thefts, especially for copper wire.
Copper is fetching close to $4 a pound, according to Kitco Base Metals, a precious metal retailer, up from about $2.75 in December. Aluminum is raking in $1.30 a pound compared to less than $1.10 in December.
The price increases on metal commodities are being fueled by growing demand from foreign countries — namely China and India — that find themselves in an economic boom and facing a worldwide shortage of the materials.
'We have seen an increase around the city in copper wire thefts,' said Jack Gillen, a spokesman for the Lakeland Police Department. 'The problem is definitely worse than it was last year.'
In 2007, LPD investigated about 60 scrap metal thefts through April. This year has surpassed that, Gillen said, though he didn't have specific numbers.
'They are not just taking air conditioning units or little bits of wire,' he said. 'They are breaking into places and taking massive rolls.'
Most recently, a supervisor at the Waste Water Treatment Plant in Lakeland was arrested last month and charged with stealing scrap metal from the plant, Lakeland police reports said.
Many times, though, arrests are not made or the cases are thrown out in court, said Rose Mock, president of Allied Scrap Processors in Lakeland.
In March, a copper thief caused a brief electrical blackout for about 4,000 Tampa Electric Co. customers in Mulberry.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office estimated damage at the company's substation at Moore's Lane and Diesel Road at $500,000.
Also in March, a Lakeland man was arrested for breaking into a Habitat for Humanity home and stealing about $2,000 in copper wire and tubing, according to police reports.
In January, a burglar left Alliance for Independence without heat after destroying two of the company's three heaters for copper wire. The nonprofit organization, which provides assistance and life-skills training to developmentally disabled adults, was forced to use space heaters on the coldest day of the year.
On Jan. 2, copper wire was stolen from air conditioners at the Boys and Girls Club on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Catholic Charities on East Memorial Boulevard in Lakeland. The copper wire thefts from four air conditioners at the Boys and Girls Club caused $12,000 in damage, reports said.
'The cost in damages to the business far exceeds the money the thieves would receive for the scrap metal,' Gillen said. 'They can cause thousands of dollars in damage just to get a small amount out.'
These are just a few of the instances of scrap metal thefts from around the county in recent months without arrests.
Unincorporated Polk County, which is patrolled by the Polk County Sheriff's Office, has had 178 scrap metal thefts through April, which is nearly even with 179 reported between January and April 2007.
Last year, PCSO detectives were called to 537 scrap metal theft cases.
But law enforcement officials and scrap dealers are hoping a new law passed in the recent legislative session will help to combat thieves looking to unload their stolen loads for cash.
Last week, in the waning hours of the legislative session, House Bill 105 received final approval from the Senate and is now on its way to the desk of Gov. Charlie Crist.
The bill, spearheaded by Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven, specifically spells out 11 new standards and restrictions to the current process of handling recyclable metals. Troutman has been a victim of scrap metal thieves.
'From a law enforcement standpoint, whenever that thing can be put out there, it's really going to help us out,' Gillen said.
The bills provisions include:
* Eliminating the requirements that transactions must be greater than $10 in value to be regulated under statutes.
* Adding stainless steel beer kegs to the list of regulated materials.
* Requiring scrap metal recyclers to gather more information about sellers and storing the information in an electronic database.
* Raising the penalties scrap metal recyclers face for repeated noncompliance with requirements; including the penalty from a first degree misdemeanor to a third degree felony.
* Increasing the penalties against sellers for giving false information to recyclers; increasing the penalties to second and third degree felonies.
* Requiring the Department of Revenue to release the names of any registered recycler to a law enforcement official upon request.
* Adding that all regulated metals be transported to a recycler in a motor vehicle and eliminating the current statute's exceptions.
* Mandating payments for all sales more than $1,000 to be made by check.
The bill is a way to help law enforcement and recyclers deal with the boom in business from new sellers, who might be a bit unscrupulous in how they obtain their materials.
'Do I think it is going to help? I don't know,' Mock said about the new law, which is set to go into effect in October. 'But I am on the hope end of it.'
The impact from the bill on what Allied Scrap already does to ensure legitimate sales will be minimal, she said.
'It's another law,' she said. 'We've already been doing most of it since '89 anyways.'
That was the last time the commodity market experienced a sharp increase in prices. And at that time came more thefts, too, she said. This year's uptick in prices is no different.
The recent increase in prices has brought quite a bit of business to Allied Scrap, both good and bad. And the demand doesn't look like it will be ending anytime soon.
But with new technology and better communication with other dealers and law enforcement, cracking down on thieves is becoming somewhat easier.
Mock, who also is the secretary for the International Scrap Recycling Industries, New Southern chapter, said constant communication is key to busting theft rings trying to unload large amounts of stolen scrap.
'We are always talking to each other,' she said. 'We'll call the police if something looks suspicious, and if there is a theft, they will call us telling us what to be on the lookout for. That's how you catch people, and that's how you get things (charges) to stick.'
[ Jeremy Maready can be reached at 863-802-7592 or jeremy.maready@theledger.com. Ledger correspondent Mycah Pleasant contributed to this story. ]
Source: http://www.theledger.com/article/20080506/BREAKING/898636106
The prices of scrap metals are at an all-time high and so are thefts, especially for copper wire.
Copper is fetching close to $4 a pound, according to Kitco Base Metals, a precious metal retailer, up from about $2.75 in December. Aluminum is raking in $1.30 a pound compared to less than $1.10 in December.
The price increases on metal commodities are being fueled by growing demand from foreign countries — namely China and India — that find themselves in an economic boom and facing a worldwide shortage of the materials.
'We have seen an increase around the city in copper wire thefts,' said Jack Gillen, a spokesman for the Lakeland Police Department. 'The problem is definitely worse than it was last year.'
In 2007, LPD investigated about 60 scrap metal thefts through April. This year has surpassed that, Gillen said, though he didn't have specific numbers.
'They are not just taking air conditioning units or little bits of wire,' he said. 'They are breaking into places and taking massive rolls.'
Most recently, a supervisor at the Waste Water Treatment Plant in Lakeland was arrested last month and charged with stealing scrap metal from the plant, Lakeland police reports said.
Many times, though, arrests are not made or the cases are thrown out in court, said Rose Mock, president of Allied Scrap Processors in Lakeland.
In March, a copper thief caused a brief electrical blackout for about 4,000 Tampa Electric Co. customers in Mulberry.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office estimated damage at the company's substation at Moore's Lane and Diesel Road at $500,000.
Also in March, a Lakeland man was arrested for breaking into a Habitat for Humanity home and stealing about $2,000 in copper wire and tubing, according to police reports.
In January, a burglar left Alliance for Independence without heat after destroying two of the company's three heaters for copper wire. The nonprofit organization, which provides assistance and life-skills training to developmentally disabled adults, was forced to use space heaters on the coldest day of the year.
On Jan. 2, copper wire was stolen from air conditioners at the Boys and Girls Club on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Catholic Charities on East Memorial Boulevard in Lakeland. The copper wire thefts from four air conditioners at the Boys and Girls Club caused $12,000 in damage, reports said.
'The cost in damages to the business far exceeds the money the thieves would receive for the scrap metal,' Gillen said. 'They can cause thousands of dollars in damage just to get a small amount out.'
These are just a few of the instances of scrap metal thefts from around the county in recent months without arrests.
Unincorporated Polk County, which is patrolled by the Polk County Sheriff's Office, has had 178 scrap metal thefts through April, which is nearly even with 179 reported between January and April 2007.
Last year, PCSO detectives were called to 537 scrap metal theft cases.
But law enforcement officials and scrap dealers are hoping a new law passed in the recent legislative session will help to combat thieves looking to unload their stolen loads for cash.
Last week, in the waning hours of the legislative session, House Bill 105 received final approval from the Senate and is now on its way to the desk of Gov. Charlie Crist.
The bill, spearheaded by Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven, specifically spells out 11 new standards and restrictions to the current process of handling recyclable metals. Troutman has been a victim of scrap metal thieves.
'From a law enforcement standpoint, whenever that thing can be put out there, it's really going to help us out,' Gillen said.
The bills provisions include:
* Eliminating the requirements that transactions must be greater than $10 in value to be regulated under statutes.
* Adding stainless steel beer kegs to the list of regulated materials.
* Requiring scrap metal recyclers to gather more information about sellers and storing the information in an electronic database.
* Raising the penalties scrap metal recyclers face for repeated noncompliance with requirements; including the penalty from a first degree misdemeanor to a third degree felony.
* Increasing the penalties against sellers for giving false information to recyclers; increasing the penalties to second and third degree felonies.
* Requiring the Department of Revenue to release the names of any registered recycler to a law enforcement official upon request.
* Adding that all regulated metals be transported to a recycler in a motor vehicle and eliminating the current statute's exceptions.
* Mandating payments for all sales more than $1,000 to be made by check.
The bill is a way to help law enforcement and recyclers deal with the boom in business from new sellers, who might be a bit unscrupulous in how they obtain their materials.
'Do I think it is going to help? I don't know,' Mock said about the new law, which is set to go into effect in October. 'But I am on the hope end of it.'
The impact from the bill on what Allied Scrap already does to ensure legitimate sales will be minimal, she said.
'It's another law,' she said. 'We've already been doing most of it since '89 anyways.'
That was the last time the commodity market experienced a sharp increase in prices. And at that time came more thefts, too, she said. This year's uptick in prices is no different.
The recent increase in prices has brought quite a bit of business to Allied Scrap, both good and bad. And the demand doesn't look like it will be ending anytime soon.
But with new technology and better communication with other dealers and law enforcement, cracking down on thieves is becoming somewhat easier.
Mock, who also is the secretary for the International Scrap Recycling Industries, New Southern chapter, said constant communication is key to busting theft rings trying to unload large amounts of stolen scrap.
'We are always talking to each other,' she said. 'We'll call the police if something looks suspicious, and if there is a theft, they will call us telling us what to be on the lookout for. That's how you catch people, and that's how you get things (charges) to stick.'
[ Jeremy Maready can be reached at 863-802-7592 or jeremy.maready@theledger.com. Ledger correspondent Mycah Pleasant contributed to this story. ]
Source: http://www.theledger.com/article/20080506/BREAKING/898636106
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