The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc has updated their website http://www.scraptheftalert.com/Home/Home.aspx to make it easier to locate stolen items. They have included a pdf document to help guide you through the process, http://scraptheftalert.neframework.com/ ... /Howto.pdf
Hopefully you can recover your stolen artifact and bring the perps to justice.

Wow. That website is a pretty good start. However, it won't do anything to stop folks from fencing the stolen goods to others in the antiques trade.

As I have said before, no one should ever be allowed
to sell any metal for scrap unless:

1. The buyer is the federal government.
NO more for-profit criminal businesses buying stolen goods!

2. ALL items to be sold MUST BE inspected by the buyer -- in person.
No more driving onto scales with a load, getting weighed,
unloading with NO inspection, then getting paid.

3. NO payment is made until 6 months have passed
since the date of the sale.

4. ALL payments must be made by check, NOT cash, and
MUST be sent to a street address.

5. 3 forms of ID -- one being a driver's license or State ID --
MUST be shown when the items to be sold are dropped off,
before any payment can begin to be processed.
P.O. boxes would NOT be allowed as addresses.

6. ALL scrap metal buyers must be audited by an independent
firm at random times to insure that they are not stealing any scrap metal.

ALL If these things are NOT done, these dratted thefts WILL continue.

There are some things that could be implemented. Only traceable forms of payment. ID's given and copied or photographed. Video surveillance of wherever they are being told to unload. And of the counter area taking clear shots of the sellers. Maybe a few obvious regulations for certain items like why would an individual be selling a manhole cover? Anything that helps deter without being too onerous.

Steve

Many yards I deal with already are required to verify sellers, take pictures of loads, refuse sellers that are scrappers without any connection with legit contractors or railroads. The enforcement here is pretty strict and fines are not low for violations.

Dallas may not be the best city for preservation of the past, but they do some things right sometimes - especially in scrap sales and also on pawn shop purchases. I was able to recover some RR equipment after a break-in due to the lists sent to the police crime squad ( the thieves sold for $100.00 while it would have cost over $5,000.00 to replace just 3 items).

I really don't think that meth heads and such drove their illict "Scrap" loads down to the dock to get weighed and paid. The illegal transactions happen at the little "pop-up" uninspected scrap yards, according to local Los Angeles Times articles.

We have had to deal with this a lot since moving into our shop in Fort Erie, Ont. Our site is the former Canadian National diesel shop, once part of the sprawling CN Fort Erie Yard, which also included a Car shop. Shut down in 1989, the Car shops for years were owned by a lumber transload company. When they closed, the car shops were purchased by a scrap metal dealer. They have become very good friends and neighbours, and have allowed us to get charges against some of the idiot thieves that have stolen from our site, and sold the stuff to the scrap yard. They take a full record of what comes in, and also get their name and info. So when they see railroad items, they call us, we take a look, call the police, and charges are laid. It's quite a nice operation. We've gotten a few things back that were stolen from us directly, but we don't persue everything, only the railway material. It's gotten a lot better now that the police have been involved, but ours is a lucky situation.

Another brazen theft- not of railway material this time, but of a number of church bells from the former Trinity Anglican Church in Brockville, Ontario.

http://www.recorder.ca/2014/06/18/reprieve-for-church

The large church bells were being cut into pieces for removal. You'd think a scrap dealer would have to question somebody bringing in large pieces of church bells- and I can only imagine the noise as the thieves used a grinder to slice them apart. Aside from the noise of the grinder, wouldn't the vibration be amplified by the bell into a ringing noise?

This church is surrounded by homes- didn't anybody wonder about the noise?

Simply amazing what some people will do for a few bucks.

Steve Hunter

Thieves are not usually too smart. When I had a shop here in Dallas, I had special double deadbolt locks installed in the one steel door to the outside and ABUS locks on all the overhead doors. One weekend, theu broke through the bars on a window and squeezed inside. They first gathered up all the loose tools they could but they could not get into the locked metal tool chest. They also could not get out as the deadbolts stopped them. Without thinking too much, they ignored a torch nearby, found a punch and proceeded to try to bust the ABUS locks off the tool chest wth the spike driver. With some effort, they finally succeeded but the one lock held while the hasp gave way. The other lock finally was twisted where the latch was 90 degrees from normal.

To get out, they hit the deadbolt with the spike hammer until the lock was driven through the steel door and landed in the driveway about 15 feet from the building. I lost about $7,000.00 in tols. The stupid thing was they had a Phillips screwdriver of mine that would have taken two minutes to back out the screws from the inside deadbolt: yet they labored heavily to destroy the door and lock.

Unfortunately, thieves here in Arizona have been more brazen and organized. Last year the Arizona Department of Public Safety busted a metal theft ring. Estimated value of the metals stolen was more than $2 million. These guys were stealing copper ingots from the mine and reselling them on the black market (with insider help of course).

I work in claims and can tell you that copper and metallica theft is an epidemic. I've appraised houses where the majority if not all of the plumbing was stolen while the Policyholder was away on vacation or even just gone for the day at work. I've already seen houses where the aluminum siding was ripped off while the Insured was away. It is remarkable! (I also had my 40' extension ladder stolen while I was up on a third story roof but that's another story. Homeowners and Commercial claims can give the railroad a run for the stories you bring home..)

Just down the street from my warehouse and office is a reputable scrap dealer. He does everything he can to keep things above board. Our team often runs him a wide variety of scrap. He is very particular about AC and Fridge compressors, what the backstory is on your load, etc. Everyone who takes metal there has an ID number and account at his facility. It seems to work very well. What you can't police are the skiphozos who bring product to the facility. Due to my proximity, I often unsavory types picking through our dumpster and/or trying to access our pile of scrap.

This past week the Pennsylvania legislature sent to the governor for signature Senate Bill 1077, adding railroad track components to the list of restricted materials that can only be sold to scrap dealers through commercial accounts.

Alan Maples

Reported by the BBC today:

"South Africa: Metal thieves 'steal 10km of railway'"

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-28311240

-Philip Marshall