Theft of metal has spread to the suburbs.
More than $200,000 worth of aluminum, copper, steel and other valuable metal parts has been stolen from sites in northern Harford County this year, authorities said.
Thieves have long stolen metal in Baltimore City to sell as scrap so they can pay for their drug habits.
“I?d love to say that most of our thefts are just drug users who go out at night, steal a small amount, trade the metal for drug money and go home with their drugs, but it?s become such a lucrative business now,” said Capt. Doug Verzi, commander of the Harford County Sheriff?s Office?s northern precinct.
Copper fetches $3.50 a pound; aluminum, $1.50 a pound, Verzi said.
“You don?t have to get a whole lot of it to get good money,” he said.
Between January and October, his precinct has seen 70 cases of metal theft, from copper pipes to solid metal manhole covers.
“I?ve seen air-conditioning units that were attacked,” Verzi said. “They?d remove the sheet metal from the outside, then drain the coolant and take the copper tubing from inside.”
At one construction site, steel studs ready to be put in for interior walls went missing, then turned up at a scrap dealer later.
In the biggest case, at the end of October, $30,000 worth of copper piping disappeared from a construction site at North Harford Middle School.
Verzi said he is working with Sheriff Jesse Bane to introduce state legislation that would require scrap metal dealers to follow a pawn shop model and keep records of those who sell them the metal, so stolen products could be traced back to the sellers.
While only three businesses in Harford County are registered scrap metal dealers, other junkyards and auto wreckers may unknowingly be paying for stolen metal, Verzi said.
