(WSBT) In early 2007, scrap metal thefts made front page news for weeks, after reports that four homeless men killed and left in manholes had been arguing over stolen scrap metal. Prosecutors later determined the murders were committed over a stolen space heater.
But the reports raised an interesting question: Was the city's new ordinance helping to stop scrap metal thefts? An undercover investigation suggests the answer may be no.
South Bend's Common Council passed the ordinance in May of 2006, hoping it would help them keep better track of where the stolen metal was coming from and who was buying it. But they said it would only work if scrap dealers agreed to follow it.
A hidden camera investigation from our news partners at The South Bend Tribune shows some weren't.
From window frames to gutters, radiators and aluminum cans, thousands of pounds of metal pours in every day to South Bend's four scrap yards. But as reports of scrap metal thefts began to spike across the city last year, city leaders decided to crack down.
The unanimously-passed ordinance requires scrap yards to do five things when buying scrap metal. First, scrap dealers are required to ask the seller where the metal came from. Video cameras are required to capture the seller's image. Scrap yards must make a copy of the seller's driver's license or another form of state ID, and take a copy of the seller's thumbprints. The license plate of the vehicle used to transport the scrap metal must also be recorded.
With a small camera hidden inside a backpack, Tribune reporters dressed in street clothes, and went to each of the scrap yards to find out if the new ordinance is being followed.
At Indiana Auto Parts on South Michigan Street, the reporters were told they couldn't legally sell an old beer keg. So they pulled out another piece of metal.
On the video, the reporter can be heard asking, "Can I sell this?"
"What is it?" asks one of the store's workers.
"It's an urn — a metal urn," the reporter replies.
Workers studied the piece, then weighed it and asked where it came from.
"[Did] that belong to someone in your family?" the worker asks.
"A friend gave it to me. It's old. It's rusted," the reporter replies.
The "urn" the reporter referred to is actually a bronze and copper vase, used to hold flowers on headstones at cemeteries. Some are valued at more than $600. A local cemetery loaned the Tribune's reporters a box of them for use in the undercover investigation.
After carefully considering it, Indiana Auto Parts workers made their decision.
"That's against the law," the worker says on the tape. "We can't buy that."
In fact, cemetery vases aren't specifically addressed in the new ordinance. But after thousands of them were stolen from several area cemeteries, police asked scrap yards not to buy them.
Indiana Auto Parts did decide to buy a small piece of copper wire, though.
But as the worker rang up the sale, he failed to ask the reporter for a thumbprint, didn't copy her ID, didn't record her license plate, and had no video surveillance of her image.
When WSBT went back to confront the workers, we were told they couldn't speak to us.
"You'd have to talk to the owner," said the manager on duty.
The store's owner, Paul Shaffer, runs another store in Portage, Ind. and says he didn't know about South Bend's ordinance. But he doubts it would do any good even if his employees had followed the rules.
"It would have to have serial numbers on it," he told WSBT by phone from his Portage store. "How would you know? You can't keep track of stuff like that."
So Shaffer says he's considering scrapping the idea of buying scrap altogether.
"That's only a small percentage of our business," he said. "If it's a hassle, we won't buy the scrap metal at all."
At U.S. Scrap on Walnut Street, workers did ask for an ID.
"Do I have your ID on file?" the worker can be heard saying on the hidden camera footage.
"No," the reporter replies.
"I got to make a copy," the worker then says.
U.S. Scrap also had video surveillance.
But the reporter wasn't asked for his thumbprints, no license plate information was taken, and no questions were asked.
U.S. Scrap also refused to buy a box of six cemetery vases on the Tribune's first trip.
"We usually don't buy those," the worker says on the hidden camera video. "Because there's been a report about they've been stolen out of cemeteries."
But when the reporters came back, workers did agree to buy one vase.
U.S. Scrap owner Mike Morris was out of state following the investigation, but agreed to speak to WSBT by phone. He agreed that the ordinance is "costly and ineffective," but said he "wouldn't comment" about what our hidden cameras showed.
Morris did say U.S. Scrap is working closely with South Bend and St. Joseph County police and the St. Joseph County Prosecutor's Office to combat theft, and that his employees never "knowingly purchase" stolen items. He said police have arrested several people for selling stolen scrap metal at U.S. Scrap.
Gertrude Street Metal Recycling Operations Manager Gary Mentag said his facility cooperates with the police too.
So he was shocked when we showed him the hidden camera footage of his employees. Gertrude St. Metal Recycling did comply with all five ordinance requirements, but bought one of the cemetery vases.
Mentag says that was a mistake.
"Jose is from Michigan, and he wasn't aware of that situation down here in Indiana," Mentag said after viewing the hidden camera footage with WSBT. "He thought they were just flower vases. I thought he understood and that was my fault."
But Mentag says it was a mistake that would have been corrected.
"We like to try to take [scrap metal we think is stolen] so that we do get the information to turn over to police, and we do recover the stolen property," he said.
The city's largest scrap yard, Sturgis South Bend Scrap, complied with all five requirements and refused to buy the vases.
At Gertrude Street Metal Recycling, workers say they run across stolen scrap all the time.
"Before we call the person, we call the police," said one worker.
And South Bend Police say that's proof the "spirit of the ordinance" is working.
South Bend Police Captain Phil Trent says officers are enforcing it by doing periodic spot checks.
But there's a catch.
"We can't be out there every day," he said.
Still, Captain Trent says officers have only fined one business — South Bend Scrap — for buying stolen cemetery vases, after he says they were asked not to.
That's not prohibited under the ordinance.
"But it is illegal to accept stolen items," said Captain Trent.
And Captain Trent worries this undercover investigation may show evidence of a larger problem.
"If in fact these folks are not complying with the basics of this ordinance, that's inexcusable," he said. "That's a matter of great concern."
But some say it's much worse than that.
"It's like a slap in the face of the council," said Common Councilman Derek Dieter, who is also a South Bend police officer. Dieter helped write the ordinance and says he's "beyond frustrated" that it's not being followed.
"To me, it's sickening, because it's been publicized," he said, referencing the acceptance of potentially stolen cemetery vases. "They have to know that those are being stolen. It's just very disheartening. Very disheartening."
And Dieter says he's not going to sit by and do nothing.
"If there have been violations, and we can prove them, we need to go after these people," said Dieter.
But all three scrap yards say the investigation has been an eye opening experience, and all agree they'll be keeping a much closer eye on how scrap metal is bought in the future.
"This is a learning experience," said Gary Mentag of Gertrude Street Metal Recycling. "We have learned from it, and we'll try to do better in the future."
And city leaders have a plan to ensure that happens. Common Council President Tim Rouse has called for the scrapping ordinance to be put back on the city's Health and Public Safety Committee agenda next month.
Councilman Dieter says he'd like to see scrap dealers and owners at that meeting as well. Every one of those dealers that we spoke with in the course of this investigation said they'd be willing to do that.
In the meantime, Captain Trent says scrap metal thefts have fallen slightly, but he believes that's because there isn't much left to steal. He estimates the amount stolen over the last few years has reached well into the millions of dollars.
