Is scavenging for scrap metal a bad thing?

[Hubert Flottz]

21. If you get the okay from the owner of the metal...

nobody will be going to the recyclers looking for that material, so I'd say it would be okay. If you go on to somebody's property and haul off a large quantity of material and that person reports you to the cops, they may check with the recyclers in your area to see if they have taken in the metal the owner reported missing. Then the cops will find you. The recyclers may call the cops to see if there is anything on the list of stolen goods if something arouses his suspiction and if the recyclers wrote down your truck tag number, the cops could come visit you, if the material is on the list a stolen property. Put an ad in a free ad paper in your area and say you will haul off junk for free and you will probably get some freebies. Right now the prices are high for scrap I hear.

I was working for a bridge contractor a while back and a guy that had been a company general foreman for them for 20 years, hauled off several truck loads of scrap steel worth several thousand dollars. The guy and his two brothers who hauled the stuff off on the weekends when nobody was there, didn't just get fired, they all went to jail. The contractor we were working for was a subcontractor on the job and the steel ended up being the property of the main contractor over the whole job, unbeknown-st to the perps. Mister big pressed charges and the story did not end well for the bandits. Not only did these guys work like dogs loading the goods, they found themselves behind bars.

Scrap is worth enough now that the cops are on their toes and checking for stolen goods. Here thieves are stealing copper wire right off the utility poles and are wrecking air conditioner units beside folks houses and destroying these AC units that cost several thousand dollars, to steal a hundred dollars worth of copper. Times are tough and just like during the great depression lawlessness is on the rise.