Thieves at scrap yards sift for metal
Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008
The Little Rock police report describing the arrest of David Ester last week is one of 356 so far this year containing an account of the theft of copper or other salvageable materials, usually out of a home air conditioner or from utility transformer sites.
But police and the owners of one Little Rock salvage yard said Ester’s arrest was different — in no small part because he was accused of stealing the metal from a scrap yard, intending to sell it back later.
No more than a dozen times a year, the brothers who own the only scrap yard near downtown Little Rock catch crooks stealing from them only to try and resell their booty later.
Little Rock police, who just this year began tracking scrap-metal thefts, said it is an infrequent but persistent nuisance at several scrap yards in central Arkansas, hard to prove and hard to punish.
“People usually focus on the residential stuff and things like that, but a good haul there will get you maybe $ 10 or $ 15 when you resell it,” Little Rock police Sgt. Alan Watson said. “Steal in volume from a salvage yard and maybe you’ll walk away with $ 100 or more worth of scrap metal.” Charles Alman, who owns the Sol Alman Co. scrap wholesaling firm at 1300 E. Ninth St. with his brother, Larry, said it’s easy to understand why companies like his are targets.
“It’s like a rodent or a cockroach or whatever knowing where the bait is,” he said. “And the rodents and the cockroaches are the criminals.” A little after 2 a.m. on Monday, police saw a man dragging a trash can south along Hanger Street a few blocks from the Sol Alman Co. yard. The man saw the officers, let go of the trash can and ran back north onto East Ninth.
Police followed and arrested Ester, 32, and charged him with breaking and entering, theft of property and fleeing. In the trash can: pounds upon pounds of stainless steel worth an estimated $ 325.
Three days earlier, records show, Ester was arrested at the Sol Alman yard with a truck bed full of aluminum worth perhaps $ 1, 000.
“Most of the time they get away,” Charles Alman, 55, said. “It’s a stretch for us to even think these people will be prosecuted.” Larry Alman, 52, said some wily and wiry crooks will try to slip into the trailer where they store aluminum cans through a small hole near the top. The thieves used to wiggle through and then open the massive doors before the Almans built an iron wall behind them, he said.
“This is why we’ve been hiring off-duty police officers to keep an eye on things,” Larry Alman said. “A lot of nights, there’s someone with a badge here from sundown to sunrise.” In addition, he said, he is having cameras installed to send real-time images of the yard to a monitor in the offices as well as to his home computer.
“You can never be too vigilant,” he said.
In the past six months, he said, he or one of the officers has caught maybe a dozen people on his lot after hours.
“One guy — this was great — an officer saw him and asked him what he was doing and he just said, ‘ Oh, just making sure everything’s nice and safe for you, ’” Larry Alman said. “Yeah. Sure.” Other scrap wholesalers did not return calls seeking comment.
But Watson, the Little Rock police sergeant, said he has heard of thefts at salvage yards from North Little Rock to Bryant to Malvern to Hot Springs.
“They steal from one place and sell at another,” Watson said. “And it just doesn’t stop.”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
