Copper thieves strike north Shreveport business
By: Nancy Cook
Updated: May 24, 2012
Shreveport Police were dispatched around 9 this morning to Bell Industries in the 1800 block of Grimmet, after crews arrived to find copper cables to a large crane missing.
Tom Bell, owner of the company that manufactures oil field supplies, estimated the loss to be around $100,000. He said the copper could have been transported out in a passenger vehicle or pickup truck.
Copper has drastically increased in price over recent years. In 2001, it sold for $77 a ton, increasing to $300/ton by 2004. In 2008, it hit nearly $500/ton, according to Newsweek.
Today, according to scrapmetaljunkie.com, copper is worth $4.50 per pound, or around $9,000 per ton.
SPD Detective Roger Courtney said, "The scrap yards work really good with us, the scrap yards notifiy us - sometimes before we even know the crime has been committed."
