Law would put new burden on scrap metal dealers

An Onawa, Iowa, man was killed last year when his rental house blew up. It turns out, someone had stolen the copper gas line from the property.

Scrap yards are busy places these days, as salvagers and dealers cash in on prices higher than they've been for years, if ever, supplying metal for booming economies in places like China and India.

Copper is worth three times what it was five years ago, and metals like aluminum, stainless steel and other metals are in demand as well.

The problem is, scrap metal is easy to steal, even if it's still in use, like the copper in the unfortunate Iowa man's house, the irrigation pipe stacked near a cornfield or the aluminum bleacher seats.

And, even if it's later traced to a scrap yard, it's difficult for the owner to proove it is his.

The Nebraska legislature has advanced a bill, LB766, which would require salvage yards to keep records on sellers, including a driver's license or state identification card, to issue checks for payments of more than $25, and take and index fingerprint.

Among the business interests pushing the bill is Anheuser-Busch, which is part of a beer industry that loses about 300,000 kegs a year, worth about $50 million, to thieves each year.

Jackie Schamel, who operates DS Enterprises with her husband, Don, understands the industry's responsibility to deter theft, but feels requiring finger prints goes too far.

"We don't think the private person should have to act as the police," she said.

Their scrapyard east of McCook, may have only one or two customers a day, usually selling "pop cans and this and that."

When unusual amounts of material comes in from an unusual source, "red flags go up" and they contact authorities.

That doesn't happen often, she said.

"We know who we're dealing with."

But while collecting fingerprints from that customer base wouldn't be hard, it could turn into an unwieldy nightmare for large scrap yards with 100 or more customers a day, she said.

If the law were passed, she noted, it would be at a disadvantage because neighboring states might not have laws as strict.

It's another example of how we all pay the price for a dishonest few. Whether or not the new scrap metal law passes its next two hurdles and becomes law, we all need to keep a look out for scrap metal thieves, and do what we can to prevent them from successfully plying their trade.