The demand for brass and copper has outstripped the supply causing scrap metal prices to soar to all-time highs. The combination of a struggling economy that has left millions of people without work and soaring scrap prices has created a problem for both commercial property and home owners. Scrap metal thieves are stripping anything that contains brass and copper from both unoccupied and occupied buildings. These thieves are so brazen that they will even remove back-flow preventers during the middle of the day. With the high metal prices the rats have been coming out of their holes.
To some readers the theft of back-flow devices may be news but to me as a property owner and manager who has personally experienced these thefts so many times that I can’t count them all on two hands it is getting old very fast. Recently thieves were so bold as to steal the back-flow device and cage that I’d installed to protect the device as if to send a message that I couldn’t stop them regardless of what I did to try. Furious at this latest theft I’m now looking for a trap big enough to catch these rats.
It is my understanding that a back-flow preventer brings about $250 on the scrap market but, as I’ve experienced, will cost anywhere from $2,000 – $6,000 to replace. Certainly a very profitable two minutes work for the thief but an extremely high price to the victim. With all of these back-flow devices being stolen why hasn’t someone started to manufacture a device from some other material that may have little or no scrap value. More to the point, why aren’t law enforcement offices visiting scrap dealers and questioning the stack of operational back-flow devices they have in their possession?
I do believe there is another solution which may not help those individuals who already have a back-flow device installed but would help those who are purchasing a back-flow device today. Require back-flow device manufactures to place an identification number on the device and for the plumbers who install the device to then register that number with the proper department within the municipality. The benefit will be that municipality will then have an accurate record of the device so they can keep track of units needing annual inspections and law enforcement will have a way to identify scrap yards that a trafficking in stolen goods. Perhaps this would be the perfect rat trap.
Edward Boyle
CEO, Employing Broker
Katchen Company
Katchen Company, founded in 1962, is an integrated real estate company with its corporate headquarters in Lakewood, Colorado. The company offers real estate development, redevelopment, property management, brokerage, consulting services, construction oversight and maintenance services to individual and institutional real estate investors throughout the greater Denver metropolitan area in Denver with satellite offices in Chicago, Las Vegas and Miami market areas.
