Police say a recent theft of copper from Sappi Fine Paper is the latest in a trend attributed to a spike in copper prices.
Westbrook officers issued summonses to three men accused of taking copper wire from mill grounds on Aug. 18, according to Capt. Tom Roth. Sappi refused comment on the incident, but Roth said the men were part of a contractor crew doing work at the mill, and were reportedly seen by mill security leaving with the wire.
The incident is part of a rash of scrap copper thefts over the last year as copper prices have increased dramatically.
“It seems to creep up when metal prices spike,” said Roth, adding, “It usually occurs in the summer months, when these things are accessible.”
Bryan McGannon of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a trade association based in Washington, D.C., said the problem isn’t limited to Maine or even the United States, but is an international problem.
“We have seen an increase as commodity prices have gone up,” said McGannon. “This is a problem that’s always around, but it’s getting a lot more attention these days.”
McGannon said the price of copper remains high, selling on international metal exchanges for about $3.50 per pound, down slightly from an all-time high of about $4 per pound in May. He said the high price is the result of a boom in manufacturing in China and the closure of a copper mine in South America because of a labor strike. He also said it has a direct correlation to the number of thefts.
According to Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries statistics, the United States produced about $30 billion worth of scrap materials last year. About 60 percent of the metals and alloys produced in North America now come from scrap metal, according to the organization. Last year, the scrap recycling industry, which employs over 30,000 people, processed about 1.5 million tons of scrap copper.
That copper is processed through scrap yards, which purchase the copper at a price significantly lower than the market value, and then sell it at a price just under market value, according to McGannon.
McGannon said it’s particularly difficult for scrap yards to determine whether metal was stolen. If someone in a pickup truck brought in a large amount of commercial-grade copper and was acting in a suspicious manner, that might indicate it was stolen, he said. Otherwise, scrap yards have to rely on proper identification and credentials.
McGannon said it’s in the best interest of local scrap yards to avoid purchasing potentially stolen materials, because there are fines and prison penalties for being caught with stolen materials.
Both McGannon and Roth said it’s common for thieves to target even scrap yards themselves. To counteract theft, most yards employ cameras and lock up valuable metals, said McGannon, who added he’s even heard of yard employees robbing their own places of business.
In Maine, Roth said many of the thefts occur at construction sites, at vacant commercial buildings that are up for sale and at manufacturing sites such as the Sappi mill. He said the thieves will often enter a vacant building and strip the copper pipes from the walls or jump a fence and steal scrap copper from construction sites. They then sell the metal to the scrap yards. Roth said he knew of one case where a thief stole metal spikes from a working railroad line.
Across the country, copper theft has had even more serious effects. According to the Department of Homeland Security, power outages from copper wire thefts have occurred in Oklahoma City, Okla., and Lebanon, Ore., just in the last two weeks. In May, the Kentucky Public Service Commission reported that attempted thefts of copper electrical wire had resulted in at least three deaths by electrocution between March and May in that state.
To prevent some of these thefts, police urge that businesses properly secure any scrap metal they have and take any other security measures they deem fit.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
