Thieves target all things metal as scrap prices rise

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, March 5, 2005

LONGVIEW – Metals prices have skyrocketed lately, and that’s left anything that’s not bolted down at risk of theft.

Joe Taylor found that out the hard way while building Sunrise Bagels in Kelso.

The building needed a big aluminum louver that cost $1,100, and it was waiting to be installed when thieves got it.

“They took it from behind my building and sold it to a recycler in Portland,” said Taylor.

Even bolting items down doesn’t always deter crooks.

Thieves in south Lewis County made off with the aluminum bridge railings over the Drew’s Prairie Bridge between Toledo and Vader.

“They’ve taken the rail – and the brackets,” said Bill Frare, assistant county engineer for Lewis County. Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties have reported similar thefts of railings.

Metals theft is a new cost of doing business. Rising worldwide metals prices have combined with an escalating drug problem to cause a boom in metal theft, as drug users cash in stolen aluminum, steel, cooper at recycling centers to feed their addictions.

“Up and down Third Avenue and Industrial Way (in Longview) is very lucrative for them,” said Ted Coons, manager for industrial contractor JH Kelly.

The company has lost everything from stainless steel pipe to welding cables.

According to Longview’s Waste Control Inc., a few years ago the firm paid 60 cents a pound for copper. These days the pure stuff can go for $1.25 a pound, said Marv Jensen, the company’s recycling manager.

Electrical wire is a common source of scrap copper, and Jensen encourages people doing home renovations to save old wire, plumbing and other metals. Resourceful thieves have found demolition trash bins to be a good source of metal. At the same time, they’ve also been stealing the new wire before it’s even been installed.

‘New’ becomes ‘scrap’

Weyerhaeuser recently lost 3,500 pounds of copper wire from its Longview mill site, but brass, aluminum and stainless steel have all been known to walk off.

Its worse when the stuff that’s lost is new. In January, Milroy Golf Systems was installing a sprinkler system at Kelso’s Three Rivers Golf Course. The Newberg, Ore.-company uses plastic pipe, but they use a lot of copper wire for the electronic control system.

“We got hit pretty good,” said JT Milroy, the company’s owner. Thieves got several 1,000-foot spools of copper wire and other items with a value of about $3,000. They also did another $2,000 damage trying to hot-wire a company vehicle.

After searching the area, police found a self-described “scrapper,” somebody who makes his living scrounging up scrap metal for recycling. He was later connected to the golf course theft, and a warrant for his arrest has been issued.

In most cased the thieves get just a fraction of the item’s value. Taylor’s Sunrise Bagel louver went for its scrap value to the Portland recycler, far below its worth.

“When you factor in the gas, they probably ended up getting $50 for it,” Taylor said.

The effects on business can be even harsher than the replacement costs of metal items. For example, thieves have stolen custom-made, stainless steel fittings from JH Kelly, throwing off its construction schedule on a pulp mill project.

“What hurts is the lack of productivity,” said Coons, of JH Kelly. “A lot of that stuff is shipped from far away, and then there’s the lead time.”

Theft prevention

Cowlitz County’s two big metal recycling operations, Waste Control Inc. in Longview and Metro Metals in Kelso, say they take steps to prevent their businesses being used by the illegal scrappers.

“Our policy is, we do not buy stolen metal of any kind,” said Marv Jensen, recycling manager at Waste Control, located on Third Avenue.

When metal is reported stolen, Waste Control and Metro Metals are usually notified, and they watch for it to come in.

“It’s uncanny how it works sometimes,” Jensen said. “They’ll fax it in, and in an hour and a half it’ll show up.”

Waste Control and Metro Metals work closely with local law enforcement, and the companies have been credited with a dozen or more arrests, police say.

“We take identification on all sellers of scrap, so we know who is bringing it in to us,” said Metro Metals’ Matt Haslett.

“Sometimes things don’t fit, like they’re bringing in brand new industrial scrap and they look like a transient,” he said.

Trying to outsmart the good guys, the illegal scrappers will beat up the new stuff they steal to make it look used. Others have taken new construction materials and dragged them down a logging road behind a pickup until they no longer appear suspicious.

Enforcement problems

JH Kelly, Sunrise Bagels and others have pressed charges, but many of the suspects are transients who are difficult to find and punish.

Some business owners don’t think the problem is given enough attention.

Taylor, the Sunrise Bagel owner, said he was told “We’ve got rapes to deal with,” when he complained to authorities about the low priority given to metal thefts. A warrant has been issued against the suspect in his case, however

JH Kelly has hired guards and a nighttime security patrol, and fenced more of its yard. These steps have helped cut metal losses, but at some cost.

“With the patrol and the guard, we’re spending a lot of money, and they’ll still cut the fences,” he said.

Now, they’re getting scrappers coming in the yard in the middle of the day to see what they can make off with.

“They’re getting pretty (gutsy), day or night,” Coons said.

In a few cases when the stolen metal has been recovered, that still hasn’t helped.

Wahkiakum County has recovered some stolen bridge railings and stanchions from a Portland recycler, but officials aren’t willing to put them back up until they can find a way to secure them against theft.

Lewis County has also held off replacing the railings of Drew’s Prairie Bridge.

“We haven’t replaced it, primarily because we’re afraid that once we do it will be simply be stolen again,” Frare said.

Cowlitz County is planning on replacing some of its stolen bridge railings with cheaper and less likely to be stolen alternatives.

“We’ll be using galvanized steel” because it’s worth less to scrappers, said Neal Deckman, road operations manager.

“It probably won’t be as aesthetically pleasing as the aluminum was, but it’ll be safer.”