Chief, I Crushed the Car

IFCAR/public domain

A patchwork of local and state laws makes it difficult for the police to catch auto thieves before they crush the stolen cars and sell them for scrap.

by R.L. Nave
January 4, 2012

Recycling is great for the Earth, but a potential nightmare if you're the victim of auto theft in Jackson.

At last week's Jackson Police Department crime briefing, police officials expressed consternation over the problem of thieves using metal recyclers in other cities to get quick cash for boosted cars.

Sgt. L.C. Russell with the department's auto-theft division said that he and officers from the Flowood Police Department visited General Recycling in Flowood, the source of several complaints. Officials said that car-theft victims have complained that metal recyclers crush their cars in as little as an hour of receiving it.

Russell said the companies were unclear on the law.

"They were under the impression that if the car is over 10 years old, they could crush it without title," Russell said.

He said that he told the on-site manager at General Recycling that the law requires companies to get a copy of the car's title—no matter how old it is—along with the driver's license of the person who brings in the car. If the person doesn't have the title, he or she must sign an affidavit stating that they are the owner.

An employee of General Recycling reached Dec. 29 declined an interview but said the company complies with all laws and referred further questions to Stan Flint, a local lobbyist for the metals recycling industry.

"I'm certain there's not a problem with stolen cars being crushed," Flint said.

Assistant Police Chief Lee Vance said the stolen car-crushing problem appears to be escalating and recommended the department develop a comprehensive plan to protect citizens.

Nationwide, metals theft has been trending upward since the economy started trending downward. While the most desirable material is copper, the price of which has increased by 50 percent in the past five years, thieves are also snatching up older-model derelict automobiles that are chock-full of potentially valuable steel, iron, plastics and rubber.

In 2008, the U.S. Justice Department noted the trend in a report on the effects of abandoned cars on crime-fighting efforts.

"It also appears that the value of scrap metal in the form of 'auto bundles' (bulk crushed cars) has increased in global markets, more than doubling from 2001 to late 2007. Higher prices seem to have been accompanied by growth in the number of U.S. businesses offering to tow junk cars for free," the report states.

Gary Bush, the national law enforcement liaison and director of material theft prevention for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries based in Washington, D.C., is a former police officer who also oversees the group's Scrap Theft Alert system.

He said he has witnessed an uptick in the past few years in the use of ISRI's theft-alert system, which law enforcement officials, scrap-metal recyclers and private citizens can access for no charge.

"It's not the Cadillac Escalade, it's the '82 sedan Deville sitting on concrete blocks in somebody's backyard," he said, adding that thieves will often alter the material before taking it to the junkyard to make it more difficult to identify as stolen. Add in a patchwork of local and state laws that are unclear or not enforced equally between jurisdictions, and recyclers and law enforcement officers have a difficult time catching metal thieves, he said.

For private citizens, Bush recommends they exercise common sense when it comes to safeguarding any potentially valuable metal items that might be lying around.

He also suggests signing up for ISRI's free metal-theft alert, through which individuals, businesses, and police can notify other subscribers in the area when a theft takes place.

So far, he said, just two law enforcement officials in our state—an investigator with the Mississippi Secretary of State Police and an official with the Lumberton Police Department—have signed up for the service that has recovered $292,000 in stolen materials since its inception.

"I know there's got to be more than two cops in the state of Mississippi," Bush said this week.


Crime Dips in Jackson in 2011
By Christmas Day, it looked like Jackson would finish out the year with an overall reduction in crime. Here's a breakdown of stats for the year through Dec. 25, 2011.

Crime 2011 2010 Change Total Major Crimes Total Property Crimes Auto burglary Auto Theft Business Burglary Grand Larceny House Burglary Total Violent Crimes Aggravated assault Armed Robbery Carjacking Homicide Rape 11,702 10,049 2,895 1,486 650 992 4,026 1,653 642 685 145 49 132 12,228 10,476 3,137 1,604 954 950 3,831 1,572 489 901 215 42 105 -4.3% -4.1% -7.7% -7.4% -31.9% 4.4% 5.1% -5.7% 31.3% -24% -32.6% 16.7% 25.7%

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