Realtors, industry rep. push for metal theft bill
Legislative leaders failed to agree last session on a bill to help crack down on scrap metal thieves, and a metal industry official and realtors were back on Beacon Hill Tuesday to renew the call for a law that would facilitate communications between industry and law enforcement officials to help catch criminals.
With former Senate President Therese Murray flagging metal theft as a "significant problem" in Massachusetts, a scrap metal bill cleared the Senate in November 2013 but never advanced beyond the House Ways and Means Committee in 2014, a perennial graveyard for many bills.
According to Colin Kelly, director of public affairs at Everett's Schnitzer Steel Industries, last session's Senate bill would have imposed an expansive tag-and-hold requirement on metal yards while a prior House bill offered a more workable plan for the industry to cooperate with law enforcement to identify suspect deliveries.
Massachusetts realtors were also on hand to testify about the bill, saying that the theft of copper from vacant and occupied homes continues to be a problem that hurts neighborhoods and home values, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) said in a release. Once thieves strip copper pipes and other metals from a vacant home, conventional financing is more difficult to obtain and the sale price could plummet, according to MAR, and the values of homes in that neighborhood also tend to suffer.
“It seems an improved market with fewer vacant homes and lower copper prices hasn’t stopped criminals from breaking into houses and stripping them of copper and other metals,” MAR President Corinne Fitzgerald, said in a statement. “This problem won’t go away if these criminals can easily unload their ill-gotten goods. We need this bill passed for the good of all homeowners and their neighborhoods.”
Kelly, noting his work on the bill first began with former Rep. Vincent Pedone of Worcester, urged the Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee to pass a bill (H 226) sponsored this session by House Majority Leader Ronald Mariano (D-Quincy).
The Mariano bill creates a local registration process for scrap metal dealers, requires dealers to tag and hold suspect items for 48 hours after being contacted by law enforcement about stolen property, and creates civil fines and penalties.
The bill also specifies items that are unacceptable for dealers to receive without proper authorization, including guardrails, manhole covers, high voltage transmission line cables, cemetery plaques, contractor tools, bleachers, traffic signs and beer kegs.
The bill that cleared the Senate last session required dealers to retain records of anyone they buy secondary metals from, and made them liable to fines or imprisonment if they knowingly bought stolen property. Work on last year's bill occurred after Bourne Police Detective Sergeant Richard Silvestro noticed an increase in the theft of catalytic converters and copper from abandoned homes.
The high price of metals has made them a target for thieves, but Kelly told the News Service Tuesday that prices have come down and estimated a manhole cover is now worth just $3.50.
Schnitzer Steel is based in Portland, Oregon and has scrap yards around the United States.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments