Scrappers made the news today in my city.

There stealing the iron street drains and the city thinks there scrapping them, not sure. i was wondering if i should lay low about scrapping in my town right now , the police are pissed don't want to be bothered, so far iv'e went out a few times and everything seems alright. they said they thought they solved the problem a few years ago by bolted them down since then they have become lose. i hope those doing this do not ruin it for the other scrappers here. very nice town even for the dumpster divers, the next city over will put you in jail for it heh.

oh darn, i was thinking drain caps or whatever they're called. Either way, they need to catch "them", and not be "profiling" innocent citizens

Bear i was thinking the same thing how do they know it's even a scrapper. Other then maybe few years back when it happened maybe they found em at a scrap yard, not sure. If someone was to hit the hole left behind from those being removed could cause a wreck or take out a wheel, very dangerous i would never do that or steal period for that matter. My name says it all lol.

I can understand how GS feels. All scrappers get a bad rap when something like this happens. Any time there is an article in my local paper about someone stealing these drain covers I always worry that I will be ''looked upon'' with interest if a police officer happens to see me scrapping even though I know it wasn't me stealing them.

i dont think the OP has anything to hide, its just that the police keep an even keener eye out on scrappers when this stuff happens.

well see thats how i feel too, if they start doing stuff like that it could ruin it for every one. the cops are pretty cool here. seems alright since iv'e now seen them a few times now and no problems so far. thanks everyone.

In Houston, the company I work for owns several retail shopping centers. We have people take our parking lot catch basin grates all the time. We now weld a chain to it and then anchor the chain inside the drainage box to allow us to remove it for cleaning or whatever. When I take my scrap, I always look for that type of stuff but never see it. I don't know who is selling or buying that stuff. Plus a collector would not want a catch basin grate.

It is the scrap yards that take blatantly stolen material (rail road, man hole covers, shopping carts, kegs etc.) that should be under scrutiny and not the honest scrapper trying to put food on their table. If every scrap yard refused to take this stolen material (they are required to have documentation), then the thieves would stop stealing it!

If your worried that you need to lay low then you need to stop doing whatever it is that makes you worried. Then can question you or whatever they want but if your not caught doing anything wrong there's not a thing they can do.

Its a shame that people go out of their way to steal things. They can bolt them down put locks on it or whatever they want someone is gonna be out looking for that next 20 rock or 40oz and find a way to get it because its too much work for them to get things honestly.

THERE'S A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A THIEF AND A SCRAPPER.

no, no, very honest here, just don't want any pissed cops taking it out on me lol. i got angry the other day, was talking to a guy and he said scrapper is just a nice word for thief? what are they thinking? theres all type of stuff to recycle without breaking laws here.

This kind of stuff happens all the time and when it does people look down on scrappers in general! Kind of like the Jhole scrapper who breaks down stuff at the curb, people come out and see the mess. I drive by and they think it was me...

Originally Posted by GentlemanScrapper

i was wondering if i should lay low about scrapping in my town right now , the police are pissed don't want to be bothered

Don't sweat it. From the perspective of the cops, they want to catch the crooks but they don't want the bad press from harassing law-abiding citizens in the process. Also, you have to do more than to just be hauling scrap metal in order to be considered "suspicious". Without a warrant, they can't legally search your vehicle anyway. If they happen to suspect you, they'll just follow you to the scrap yard and ask the buyer if he saw any grates in the pile.

Originally Posted by tedanderson

Don't sweat it. From the perspective of the cops, they want to catch the crooks but they don't want the bad press from harassing law-abiding citizens in the process. Also, you have to do more than to just be hauling scrap metal in order to be considered "suspicious". Without a warrant, they can't legally search your vehicle anyway. If they happen to suspect you, they'll just follow you to the scrap yard and ask the buyer if he saw any grates in the pile.

In my state and I assume in all states that is not the case. Like several people have stated here most others see us as crooks and not law abiding citizens anyway. There would be no bad press even if the local news picked up on the story about a scrapper being harassed most people would be happy to try and get rid of us. Hauling a load of metal would be suspicious enough for most officers. All an officer needs is "reasonable suspicion". Or probable cause. Officers do not interpret these laws judges do. Officers act first and let judges sort out the legal stuff. I have seen this first hand (been involved in an illegal search) and at the officers discretion arrested put in jail for up to 48 hours without charges as an investigative hold. Are these bad laws? No. Just sometimes abused.
Things I have personally been pulled over for that I don't think were right but accepted as legal
Officer quotes
" I ran your plates and your "last" name (not first) matches the last name of someone I'm looking for"
No other reason or driving infractions yet proceeded to take my ID and my wife's to do a background check after he realized and agreed that I was not the person.
"
we just had a call about a vehicle matching the description of your car involved in a hit and run"
Then why was he shining the flashlight through the windows of the back of my car and never walked around my car to check for damage.

A friend of mine was pulled over and the probable cause to search his car was that they saw a box knife and duct tape in his car and claimed they were tools involved in drug trafficking. Dumped everything on the ground outside the car found nothing then told the friend to pick it up. The friend refused told the officers to pick it up that they dumped it there. TheY threatened to take him to jail for littering.

Originally Posted by tedanderson

Without a warrant, they can't legally search your vehicle anyway. If they happen to suspect you, they'll just follow you to the scrap yard and ask the buyer if he saw any grates in the pile.

They can do pretty much anything they wanna do actually ; )