Rising prices for everything from copper and platinum to flour, gas and cooking oil are creating new markets for trend-minded thieves across the U.S.
With gasoline prices in the U.S. breaking new records weekly, for example, law enforcement officials are seeing more cases of cooking grease thefts from fast-food establishments and other restaurants. Why used grease? Because cooking oil can be converted into biodiesel fuel that can be sold at a cool profit.
Grease thieves have recently struck a Burger King in suburban San Jose, California; a Wilby’s Gas and Goodies in Warsaw, Indiana; a Cathay Hut and a Chick-a-Dee in Lewiston, Maine; a fast-food joint in Lavonia, Georgia; and various eateries in Colorado Springs, among other places. The trend has grown to the point where police departments and legitimate grease collecting companies are stepping up enforcement and attorneys are even developing a reputation as “grease lawyers,” the Christian Science Monitor recently reported.
As the cost of various metals — from common copper and bronze to the rarer platinum — go up, thieves are also taking advantage, pilfering everything from historic plaques to catalytic converters (which contain platinum). In New Haven, Connecticut, bronze landmark plaques and fixtures on a war memorial fountain have gone missing. Monterey County, California, has seen criminals take freeway guardrails, road signs, brass fittings from chemical tanks and copper wire from industrial sites. In Saginaw, Michigan, crooks working in the open have ripped aluminum from numerous houses. And around the country, homes left empty because of foreclosure are being stripped of copper pipes and other precious metals.
The metal-theft trend is also being blamed for a variety of accidents and mishaps, as industrial sites and homes stripped of critical parts spring leaks of gases or chemicals. A plant in California, for instance, experienced a toxic spill after parts were stolen, and an abandoned warehouse in Pueblo, Colorado, recently collapsed, thanks apparently to the theft of some critical metal structures. A food pantry serving Roanoke-Salem, Virginia, even lost about $1,500 worth of food to spoilage after thieves took copper tubing from its refrigeration system.
Finally, skyrocketing grocery prices are leading thieves to steal even from food pantry donations, as happened recently from the doorsteps of needy residents in Aloha, Oregon. Fortunately, the U.S. isn’t experiencing nearly as desperate a situation as developing parts of the globe. As wheat and rice stocks hit new lows and prices shoot upward, parts of the world — Haiti, Egypt, Yemen, Somalia and Mexico, to name a few countries — are seeing not only food-related riots, but a rising level of crop thefts, in which people are stealing food directly from farmers’ fields.
The rising incidence of various types of thefts around the country is spurring law-makers to consider a slew of new legislation to discourage the trend. Proposals are now in the works in states including California, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New York and Ohio. In fact, the New York Post-Star reports that 35 states now have or are considering new identification requirements for the copper market alone.
Image credit: Hawyih at Wikimedia Commons, released into public domain.
