One of the continual and worsening trends I notice in my daily scans of five major California newspapers is metal theft. Thieves have been stealing metal and selling it for scrap since forever, but the frequency, ambitiousness and intelligence of the crimes seems to be increasing.
From today’s LA Times:
The first break-in took place in September 2006, when gold was selling for about $587 an ounce. The thieves lay low until last December before striking again, perhaps enticed by the price of gold hovering around $800 an ounce.
As the price of the precious metal continued to zoom to more than $1,000 an ounce, the thieves' activity increased until they had stolen about $2.5 million worth of gold jewelry from 11 JCPenney stores throughout California.
"It's a strange series of crimes, to target only JCPenney stores," said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. "Then they steal only the gold and don't even touch the more expensive jewelry."
It is definitely indicative of the times we live in that this is the type of crime we’re seeing. However, precious metals are hardly the only ones being stolen.
From last weeks LA Times:
Long Beach has become the latest target in a worldwide epidemic of manhole-cover larceny, authorities say. Nearly 50 of the 150-pound, cast-iron lids have been swiped from roadways and alleys in the last eight months -- with 17 taken in just the last week, authorities said Monday.
Seven disappeared Sunday night in the northwest section of the city, say administrators of the Long Beach Water Department.
...
The covers fetch about $10 apiece when sold to metal recycling companies -- they're often hidden in loads of other scrap metal -- but they can cost up to $500 each to replace.
While the methodical and deliberate theft of just gold suggests to me that criminals are becoming smarter (either because more smart people are being driven to crime or because crime pays enough to attract smart people), stealing manhole covers suggests the desperation of criminals. You have to be in a pretty bad spot for it to seem worthwhile to steal a 150 pound manhole cover for ten dollars. If the economy continues to slide and the wealth divide continues to grow, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this kind of theft continue to grow.
The other theme this article hits on, as most do, is the toll this theft takes on our public infrastructure. Stealing manhole covers is not only dangerous, it is a huge drag on local public works agencies which are already strapped for cash.
Of course, in between gold and iron lies copper. Copper theft has been worthwhile for criminals for some time, given the relative the wide spread use and relatively high value of cooper, so as poverty grows and copper becomes more pricey, you see things like copper thieves disguised as Caltrans workers, stealing the copper from little league field lights, and ripping apart school air conditioning units.
The money quote, from the Sac Bee:
Repairs have cost the Sacramento City Unified School District upward of $20,000 in the last year, and officials say they couldn't come at a worse time.
The same economic uncertainty troubling the district, however, might be the very catalyst for the crimes. [emphasis mine]
These are just signs of the times. This is what's going on in California, which has been by no means hardest hit by the recession. I imagine it's as bad or much worse elsewhere in the country.