j.m@talk
11-26-2005, 04:59 PM
BALTIMORE (AP) -- City streets are getting darker because thieves, some disguised as utility crews, are stealing 30-foot light poles, authorities said.
About 130 aluminum light poles have vanished this fall from locations across the city, despite the difficulty of carting off the 250-pound objects.
The culprits have even dressed up as utility crews, city officials say, and placed orange traffic cones around the poles they are about to take down to avoid making motorists suspicious. Police have no suspects in the thefts, first reported in The (Baltimore) Sun.
Police say the thieves could be stealing the poles, which cost the city $750 each, to sell as scrap metal. For at least a decade, authorities suspect drug addicts have ripped metal pipes, radiators and wires out of vacant houses to pay for their next fix.
Scrap aluminum brings 30 to 35 cents a pound, according to local metal dealers.
Local salvage yards haven't reported seeing any of the stolen poles, perhaps because of a city ordinance requiring scrap-metal dealers to record personal information of people bringing in metal goods.
Some who work there, however, say they wouldn't be surprised if the poles were being sold somehow.
"They steal everything here in Baltimore," said Lynn Smith, manager at Modern Junk & Salvage Co. "Nothing's too kooky to me anymore."
The problem is not new. In 1988, authorities in New York accused two men of prying off pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge and selling them to a scrap metal dealer. Damage to the historic span was estimated at $37,000.
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About 130 aluminum light poles have vanished this fall from locations across the city, despite the difficulty of carting off the 250-pound objects.
The culprits have even dressed up as utility crews, city officials say, and placed orange traffic cones around the poles they are about to take down to avoid making motorists suspicious. Police have no suspects in the thefts, first reported in The (Baltimore) Sun.
Police say the thieves could be stealing the poles, which cost the city $750 each, to sell as scrap metal. For at least a decade, authorities suspect drug addicts have ripped metal pipes, radiators and wires out of vacant houses to pay for their next fix.
Scrap aluminum brings 30 to 35 cents a pound, according to local metal dealers.
Local salvage yards haven't reported seeing any of the stolen poles, perhaps because of a city ordinance requiring scrap-metal dealers to record personal information of people bringing in metal goods.
Some who work there, however, say they wouldn't be surprised if the poles were being sold somehow.
"They steal everything here in Baltimore," said Lynn Smith, manager at Modern Junk & Salvage Co. "Nothing's too kooky to me anymore."
The problem is not new. In 1988, authorities in New York accused two men of prying off pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge and selling them to a scrap metal dealer. Damage to the historic span was estimated at $37,000.
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