Isra-Mart srl: Recycling scrap metal is big business — so is stealing it

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Metal theft is giving recycling a black eye.

With a ready market for virtually every scrap that can be salvaged, and with prices possibly at an all-time high, thieves are stopping at almost nothing to get it.

In Redding, Fire Department officials recently reported brass fittings being stolen from fire hoses. In some areas, including the north state, metal guardrails on rural roads have gone missing overnight, and even manhole covers in city streets occasionally disappear.

With its vast, isolated fields where farm machinery may go unattended for days, Glenn County is a target-rich environment for metal thieves, and has been hit hard in recent months.

Despite very limited resources, the Glenn County Sheriff's Office has been throwing as much effort as possible into tracking down items stolen for scrap value, and getting them back to their owners.

Thanks to recent laws concerning the purchase of metal by dealers, many of the items are still intact days or even weeks after being taken, and therefore easier to identify.

Although there don't appear to be government-produced forms for the purpose, scrap dealers are required by law to identify metal sellers and determine where their materials came from.

At Aldred Scrap Metals and Steel Mill Recycling south of Chico, operations manager Jay Afsharzadeh said sellers are required to be thumbprinted, provide a Social Security number, and the materials they have for sale are photographed.

The law also requires a statement indicating the seller of the metal is the owner of the metal, or giving the name of the person or entity from whom the metal was obtained. Finally, the license plate number of the vehicle used to haul the scrap to the dealer must be recorded.

That requirement led to an interesting discovery by Glenn deputies investigating the recent theft of two large steel beams from a construction site, who determined the trailer used to haul the beams to a recycler was stolen, and also sold for scrap.

Finally, dealers are required to withhold payment from most sellers for three days, or longer if necessary, to determine the origin of the scrap metal. Sellers with employer identification numbers may be paid on the spot.

Prices, especially for metals like copper and titanium, have never been higher, according to industry officials.

Authorities in Glenn County are trying to keep the profit out of it for those who obtain it illegally. Glenn County Sheriff's Lt. Rich Warren said his department is working with scrap metal dealers to discourage thieves, and to help keep the dealers from getting stung if they happen to purchase stolen metal, despite taking precautions.

Amid a flurry of metal theft reports around Glenn County recently, deputies have been able to recover property worth thousands of dollars.

In most cases, dealers are out what they paid for the objects as scrap when they are returned to their rightful owners, Warren said. He noted dealers can attempt to seek restitution, or charge the parties who sold them stolen items a storage fee, but he didn't know if that would equal what the dealer paid, and admitted that identifying sellers can sometimes be difficult.

Warren said the intent is clear that the Glenn County District Attorney's Office intends to prosecute scrap metal theft cases, but said staffing in his department can mean investigations get delayed.

"With staffing levels what they are right now, some people may feel the risk (of stealing metal) is worth it," he said.

While thieves got only a fraction of their value for scrap, deputies recovered items worth about $45,000 in August.

The size of the items, and the effort and planning needed to steal them, doesn't seem to be a deterrent to thieves.

In August alone gas well equipment valued at $7,000, a rice roller priced at $2,500, an orchard leveler valued at $17,000, and a laser tower worth $1,000 were taken from rural areas of Glenn County.

Deputies more recently recovered an equipment carrier called a "straddle bug" and a partial plow disk, both taken from the same victim, and valued together at $17,000. All of the items were found at scrap yards and returned to the victims.

It wasn't stated if the dealers had already paid those who allegedly stole the items.

"We don't see a lot of losses from stolen metal any more," Afsharzadeh said. He said the company is also now taking ewaste, including computers and monitors, for their metal content.

Scrap dealers must generally report the purchase of non-ferrous metals — that is, those containing no iron — to law enforcement. Non-ferrous metal like copper are favorites among thieves, who pull them from the plumbing of homes, and risk death taking it from electrified control signals along rail lines.

Air conditioning units worth thousands are commonly stolen and destroyed, to get at $39 worth of copper tubing inside. Catalytic convertors, a favorite among more daring thieves, contain small amounts of precious, non-ferrous metal, and dealers must report buying them.