On the black market, copper sells like gold

It doesn't glitter and it's not as expensive as gold, but it sure has produced a rush of quirky entries in local police blotters.

In Woburn last fall, police arrested two men and charged them with stealing from the high school construction site; authorities say the suspects were taking spools of copper wire from the job.

On March 28 in Tyngsborough, two men were electrocuted cutting through a high-voltage wire near a transformer at a vacant factory; investigators suspect the men were trying to steal copper when they cut the wrong wire.

In Arlington this month, police say, a man was arrested after someone saw him trying to rip downspouts off a church building. To no one's surprise, the gutter spouts at St. Agnes Church on Medford Street are made of copper.

With the cost of copper soaring, a secondary market for the metal is flourishing. And law enforcement officials say criminals have been targeting any place where the metal can be found and taken for scrap -- electrical transformers, construction sites, household plumbing systems, building downspouts, ornamental plaques, and statues.

Copper has even become a specialty among some thieves, said Wayne Sampson, executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.

"There is a certain group who will rob people and there are types who will break into houses or businesses and steal valuables," he said. "And then there are criminals who will steal copper -- anywhere they can get it -- and take it to a scrap yard for quick money, no questions asked."

In Arlington, officials say local churches have been especially hard hit. The man arrested on May 2, Derek M. Yurko, 34, of Medford was charged with one count of receiving stolen property and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Cambridge District Court. Police say he is being investigated in connection with eight other copper thefts in the area since late January.

"They [church staff] spotted him trying to rip the downspouts away from the building," Arlington police Lieutenant Jay Moran said last week. "Almost every other church in town had been hit the same way -- downspouts ripped away."

Copper has been coveted by thieves recently not only because its prices worldwide have escalated, officials say. It's also pretty hard to find once it is gone.

The malleable metal can be easily melted down and recycled, said Ken Geremia, spokesman for the New York-based Copper Development Association.

"Scrap copper is almost completely recyclable and pretty tough to trace," he said. Last November, the copper association issued an advisory to members, warning them to safeguard not only copper but also other metal building materials such as aluminum and brass. Copper, though, is the metal of choice for thieves.

"The resale potential is enormous. A seller is able to get almost 100 percent of market value, and that's pretty high right now," Geremia said.

Indeed, copper last week was selling for around $3. 70 per pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 50 percent from about three months ago and more than 400 percent since May 1, 2002, when the metal sold for 72 cents a pound. Geremia said prices are steadily rising and may surpass $4 a pound, the record high. Driving these prices is the high demand for copper abroad; Geremia said countries undergoing explosive development have a growing appetite for copper as well as other metals.

"China and India are the two biggest consumers right now," he said. "China's using four times as much copper as the rest of the world. They need it for the same reasons we use it here in the U S -- infrastructure, plumbing, wiring, utilities, and consumer products."

Copper theft, Sampson said, is considered a low-risk offense.

"Stealing copper is a property crime -- it's not like a breaking-and-entering or an armed robbery where the criminal is confronting a person," he said. "There's no risk of a serious penalty if they get caught. In some cases, it could even be a misdemeanor as opposed to a felony."

This all translates into headaches for police as thieves target construction sites, vacant buildings, or poorly protected facilities containing copper equipment and supplies.

"They can drive right up to a construction site, load on a spool of copper tubing or whatever's laying around, and take off," said Wilmington police Lieutenant Chris Neville.

"They find a scrap yard -- and it's a fast buck. For a little bit of work, a thief can raise a couple hundred bucks."

In some instances, authorities say, the thieves have worked with audacious diligence.

The suspect arrested in Arlington this month climbed to a second-story ledge at St. Agnes to get at the downspouts, police say.

"He was pretty brazen to do that," said Moran. "There were still people in the church."

At St. Athanasius Greek Orthodox Church on Appleton Street in Arlington, the Rev. Nicholas A. Kastanas said seven downspouts valued at about $7,000 were stripped from the building last month while the church staff was inside holding a meeting.

"When we adjourned the meeting and walked outside, they were gone," he said. "We could see the debris, metal clamps, bolts. There were even a couple of bird nests that had fallen to the ground."

In Woburn last year, thieves chiseled bronze plaques off of two memorials, one of them dedicated to former police chief Leo McElhiney.

"Chiseling those plaques the way they did it is a good bit of work," said Woburn Police Chief Philip Mahoney. "Those memorials were in public places. You'd think they would be worried about being seen."

Authorities say scrap yards and junk dealers are typically not required to know or even ask about the source of the metal.

"A guy can show up with a truck load of copper, and no questions are asked," Neville said. "These guys are going to take the scrap and sell it at a higher price than what they bought it for. All they see is profit. They don't care that the copper might have been stolen."

Haverhill officials recently passed an ordinance requiring local scrap dealers to obtain copies of photo identification of sellers who bring in scrap copper as well as an inventory of the items. The information is then turned over to the Haverhill police.

"If it's stolen merchandise and somebody reports it, we'll have a record to check," said Haverhill p olice Sergeant Dana Burrill. "We've had so many [cases of copper theft], we had to do something."

Some dealers already have such a policy in place.

Harry Betty, owner of Betty H. & Son Scrap Metals in Lowell, said he follows the procedures to deter sellers of stolen copper.

"We have a sign outside that says, 'No identification, no service,' " he said. "We don't need the aggravation of dealing with stolen stuff. Some dealers don't care. If someone wants to sell stolen property, they're not coming here."

Alexander Reid can be reached at a_reid@globe.com.