[TheForge] why church bells are not stolen was Re: the theft of metal public

[CGRAF]

In a bit of defense of at least our local yards.

They can and do notify the police when they can determine that things 
are likely stolen.

There are loads that come in that are large enough that obviously stolen 
items could be buried in the middle and never be noticed though.

It is not like they go through a cart piece by piece.

I am not attributing their actions to altruism. The police have made it 
worth their time to be cooperative.
Fines and random "inspections" both by police and building/health 
inspectors of the non compliant are a quantifiable encouragement.

The police have also made this type of property crime a priority, 
assigning detectives and some officers to this duty with a city wide 
jurisdiction. There is also a email/text link to the yards with any 
photographs and descriptions of the stolen property sent out asap to the 
scrapyards and the local district stations.

I am just guessing but the prevalence of copper architectural things on 
the wealthy folks homes and the fact that these home owners are either 
well connected politically or are themselves political bigwigs,may have 
something to do with the police being so interested.

(Thieves grabbed several thousands of dollars worth of copper downspout 
from the County Executives home a couple years back and the Mayors 
neighborhood is routinely sacked.)

Mike Graf