Metal Theft

The theft of a metal, most commonly copper wiring or piping, but also including catalytic converters, manhole covers, and metal fixtures, for sale to a scrap metal dealer or recycling facility, a pattern of offending that law enforcement and researchers have documented as fluctuating with the market price of the metal involved, rising when scrap prices climb. Frequently targeted sources documented in law enforcement and industry reporting include vacant or under-construction buildings, electrical substations, railway lines, and parked vehicles, from which a catalytic converter is cut out for its valuable platinum-group metal content, and metal theft is documented as carrying a public-safety risk well beyond the value of the metal itself, including power outages, fire risk from exposed wiring, and disruption of railway signaling equipment, which has prompted a number of jurisdictions to enact specific scrap-metal-dealer licensing and cash-payment restrictions aimed at reducing the resale market for stolen metal.