AUGUSTA, Maine — As brazen thieves break into homes to steal copper almost within the shadow of the State House, Maine lawmakers are taking steps to put more muscle in the law that’s aimed at discouraging metal thefts and tracking down unscrupulous sellers.
“It’s not just a continuing problem,” Rep. Thomas Longstaff said after the House gave final approval to his bill Wednesday with a 126-2 vote. “It’s getting worse.”
The Waterville Democrat’s bill, which was headed to the Senate for its final OK, was introduced at the request of Maine police chiefs, who found loopholes in the current law that still let some thieves sell their ill-gotten metals. Maine’s present law prohibits the sale of scrap metal obtained illegally and prevents junk metal dealers from paying cash for metal.
While the law may have discouraged some thefts, often copper piping from unoccupied buildings, it has not stamped out the problem. In some cases, thieves appear to be getting bolder.
Barely two blocks from the State House in Augusta, thieves broke into an unoccupied rental home recently and took not only copper piping, but also the furnace, circulator and two oil tanks, for an estimated loss of more than $5,000. Also in the capital city, eight 100-gallon propane tanks were stolen from four businesses, a loss of a few thousand dollars.
In Lewiston, police nabbed a man red-handed stealing copper from a vacant home. Officers recovered a hacksaw, clamps and metal cutters. A former employee of Bath Iron Works was caught stealing nearly two tons of copper cable from the Navy contractor.
Houses aren’t the only targets of metal thieves. Utilities also have been plagued. In 2009, copper grounding wire was stolen from at least 40 utility poles along a 14-mile stretch from Presque Isle to Mars Hill in northern Maine. Utilities, which supported passage of Longstaff’s bill, also have had copper stolen from their substations.
The head of the Maine State Police, Col. Robert Williams, sees a strong link between copper pipe and wire theft and prescription drug abuse, which requires users to raise fast cash.
“Metal theft has become one of the — if not the — largest and most time-consuming problems the state police and law enforcement are dealing with,” Williams said. The poor economy and high metal prices exacerbate the problem, police say.
Longstaff’s bill attacks the problem on several fronts.
It broadens the definition of “scrap metal processor” to include those who operate from trucks and move from site to site. Metal sellers would have to sign statements saying they own or are authorized to sell the scrap metal. Rules for checking the identification of sellers are tightened up to include photo IDs or vehicle registration numbers, and police gain more authority to hold metals that are likely to have been stolen.
Longstaff said he “just didn’t understand the magnitude of the problem” until he was approached by police chiefs about sponsoring the bill.
“I do think it takes us some good steps ahead,” he said.
YAY !!! Let’s hope it flies through the Senate too… About time we make it harder for those thieves !
Love it – its about time that they finally go to the source – now hopefully they’ll have some enforcement measures with teeth – I’m guessing that scrap yards aren’t known for their ethical business practices.
Typical. The legislature wants to go after penny ante thieves. I guess that they don’t know that Goldman Sachs has been storing vast amounts of aluminum in warehouses in Detroit creating phony shortages and pumping up the price of that metal and aluminum company stocks. That is theft on a monumental scale. Typical of the Maine legislature, go after the pimple while the cancer grows.
Our Great Governor Paul Lepage can’t do anything about Goldman sachs.. He can do things about the State of Maine, and things seem to be picking up and the trash is being thrown out.
This problem will die down eventually because most new homes in the last 10 years have plastic heating and water pipes and the house having copper are being retro fitted with plastic !
So the thieves will just take it across a state line or two. Retrofit your house with the new plasitc tubing. Pecks (?)
I personally believe bullets are much more convincing that bills.
penny ante thieves..You have not bought any copper fitting or pipe in the last 5 years i can see that. just a little elbow cost 4 bucks . You would have to get a bank loan to buy a roll of copper piping..
A lot of guys make a few bucks just picking up junk on the side of the road. Lets make to bad scrap yards to not use common sense. I have seen people take new pipe and unopened roles of new wire to scrap yards before. If the scrap yards did the job they should do we would not need any new laws.
The availability of some decent paying jobs would probably do more to prevent copper theft than a new law. People are getting desperate.