Dealers back bill to fight metal thieves

CARSON CITY -- With copper prices on the rise again, scrap metal dealers and utilities urged senators Thursday to pass a bill designed to make locating and prosecuting scrap metal thieves easier.

"What happened last year is the price of copper, like many commodities, went to heights none of us could justify," said Scott Stolberg, the head of a coalition of eight scrap metal dealers in Nevada. "It made the stealing of copper very popular."

From a high of $4.10 per pound last July, copper fell to $1.35 in November. But prices are going back up.

Copper was selling at $2.01 per pound Thursday in New York.

"Now the profit motive has started to come back," Stolberg told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Stolberg and at least a dozen other witnesses urged the committee to back Assembly Bill 233, sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, and passed unanimously in the Assembly.

Under the bill, scrap metal dealers would be required to get names, photos, addresses, a fingerprint and driver's license information from people who sell them copper and other scrap metals.

Payments to sellers would be made by check if the metal sold was worth at least $150. Only one sale of more than $150 per day would be allowed.

Scrap metal dealers would face criminal penalties for failing to comply with the provisions.

No one testified against the bill, but Judiciary Committee Chairman Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, said he would wait until a future work session to act on the proposal.

Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, expressed concern that the information given scrap metal dealers might be used in identity theft.

But Stolberg said name and address information would be restricted only to the scrap metal dealers and police. He objected to the criminal penalties, saying administrative fines would be a better alternative.

There have been reports nationally that copper wire thieves often are methamphetamine addicts looking for a quick buck.

Josh Martinez, a Las Vegas police lobbyist, said there were nearly 900 incidents in Clark County last year of utilities and construction companies reporting theft of scrap metal.

To prosecute offenders is difficult because it is hard to prove the copper wire someone sells is the same wire stolen from a utility, he said.

He added an incident occurred last year in southwest Las Vegas where residents saw their lights start to flicker and spied someone pulling wire from utility line. Police caught that suspect, but such arrests are rare, Martinez said.

The police lobbyist said law enforcement agencies favor a bill to require scrap metal dealers to always pay by check for the copper and other metal they buy.

But the $150 limit on cash purchases represented a compromise. Stolberg said it costs an average of $2.31 to write a check, even for a minimal purchase.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.