A regular Source feature, Undercurrents explores issues, ideas and events as they develop beneath the surface in the Virgin Islands community.
The underground trade in copper and other stolen industrial metals is evidently alive and well in the Virgin Islands, despite serious attempts by law enforcement and lawmakers to curtail it. And it is sometimes a very ugly business.
Utility wires, stainless steel beer kegs, new construction materials, even grave markers have all been easy pickings for thieves who sell the materials as scrap metal. Frequently, the damage they cause in extracting the metals costs the owners as much or more than the thieves realize from the theft.
Perhaps the most famous case in recent years was the 2009 disappearance of an historic rum still from the grounds of the Whim Museum. Police said the still was dismantled in full view of several occupied homes, suggesting either that many in the community condoned the practice or that they feared the thieves.
In October 2011, Police and government regulators raided several scrap metal dealers on St. Croix. They found enough licensing and fire violations to shut them down – one for good and the others temporarily. That action “put a damper on the scrap metal theft on St. Croix,” Police spokeswoman Melody Rames said last week.
But clearly, it didn’t stop it all together.
Building supplier Tom Brunt described himself as “a two-time victim.” About a year ago, someone cut the electric wire to his St. Croix plant so they could enter it and then they helped themselves to about $10,000 worth of materials. Brunt said he built a cage around the breaker, but about two months ago, a thief or thieves cut open the breaker and got access to the building again – and he lost another $10,000 between the materials and the damage.
Last week the Water and Power Authority reported that someone shorted out a segment of the distribution system in the sparsely populated Estate Annaly-Mount Victory area on St. Croix’s west end, and stole more than 1,000 feet of copper line off of utility poles.
Besides the cost of the materials and the cost of the manpower required to make repairs, the action left about 30 homes without electricity until repairs could be completed.
Noting the danger of tampering with electrified lines, WAPA spokeswoman Cassandra Dunn observed, “This is a deadly kind of endeavor.”
She had no estimate of the cost of the latest incident, but said it is the rate payer who foots the bill, since such losses add to WAPA’s operating costs.
Line theft has become a significant problem on St. Croix where most of the wiring is overhead, she said. It is not so on St. John or on St. Thomas, where much of the wiring is underground and so far less accessible.
While the problem is most pronounced on St. Croix, the other islands are not totally immune. Joe Aubain, executive director of the St. Thomas Chamber of Commerce, said he has not received complaints from island businesses recently, but added that several years ago, while the Humane Society was constructing its animal shelter, thieves broke into the building where materials were stored. “We lost about $16,000 to $20,000” worth of materials, he said.
Police have reported a few arrests. In 2010, following up on a tip, police watched two men taking heavy duty copper wire from a home in Estate White’s Bay. In 2011, a young man and a 75-year-old woman were arrested for stealing aluminum windows from a La Grande Princesse residence. Police said the woman was driving the vehicle hauling the property.
In October of 2012, five men were arrested and charged with robbery and attempted murder of a man they allegedly beat and threw out a second-story window. Police said they took cash and scrap metal. Rames confirmed the victim was a scrap metal dealer.
In the last Legislature, Sen. Nereida “Nellie” Rivera-O’Reilly proposed a bill aimed at controlling the industry and mitigating the theft of metals. The senator said she plans to amend the bill in light of recommendations received from various officials involved in the issue, and she would reintroduce the revised bill in the new Legislature. As of last week, it was in the legal counsel’s office for redrafting.
Rivera-O’Reilly approaches the problem from several angles, but primarily she puts the onus on the dealers. “The penalties are really on the business,” she said.
Someone buying scrap metal would be required to review identification from the person selling it, as well as a written statement or proof that he/she is either the owner of the material or authorized by the owner to dispose of it. The dealer would have to maintain a record of each transaction, including a description of the product and what he paid for it, and to make those records available for inspection.
A number of products would not be eligible for purchase, except under special circumstances, including utility access covers, street signs, water meter covers, historical markers and grave markers, government property, utilities’ property, and unused, undamaged construction materials.
Buying any forbidden materials would be a misdemeanor the first two times, but a felony the third and any subsequent times. Selling property in violation of the law – and/or providing a false ID to a dealer – would also be a felony.
Rivera-O’Reilly said the bill will also include a moratorium on the trade of copper for an as yet unspecified period of time to allow the V.I. Police Department, the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs, and Waste Management to gear up to monitor and enforce the new regulations.
“Overall, it’s a good idea,” said DLCA Commissioner Wayne Biggs, whose department would bear the brunt of the monitoring. “This is a nationwide problem,” he noted.
Responding on behalf of the Justice Department, Chief Deputy Attorney General Wayne G. Anderson declined to comment even on the concept of the proposal since the amended version is not yet public. He would say only that, like all crime, metal theft “is very important to us.”
As for the Police, Rames said, “Police support any regulation that would mitigate this crime.”
Attempts to get comments from recyclers and metal scrap dealers were unsuccessful.
According to the DLCA website, it has issued 11 such licenses on St. Croix and 11 on St. Thomas, a few of which may overlap as they are to affiliated businesses. About half of these dealers are not listed in the local telephone book. Of those that are, none would speak for this article; some simply did not return messages via phone or email.
One dealer, reached twice by phone, said both times that he was too busy to talk, and he did not return the call.
