The new underground currency (OT)

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The new underground currency Elisabeth Flores, Star Tribune Holes in walls are remnants of work being done of illegal removal of copper as Minneapolis police officer Richard Jackson, made his way around a home searching for illegal inhabitants.Thieves are ransacking house after house in search of copper they can sell to scrap dealers for as much as $20,000 a month.By JON TEVLIN, Star Tribune Last update: April 12, 2008 - 11:45 PMhttp://www.startribune.com/local/17569284.html Print this storyE-mail this storySave to del.icio.usShare on newsvineShare on DiggRelated Content Video: On the job with a problem property officer Photo gallery: Copper: The new underground currencyMore from Local + MetroSevere Weather Awareness Week8-year-old Belle Plaine boy killed in hunting accidentWhat to do when severe storm approachesSt. Paul duplex fire displaces 14 peopleHD enthusiasts crying foul over cable TV's crunched signalsThe gang descended on the house on Penn Avenue like carrion, ripping open wall board and gutting it of copper. They severed the pipes connected to the gas furnace and water heater, then hit the kitchen sink. Piles of lath lay at the foot of the stairs, the wall torn open to expose the upstairs bathroom. By the time officer Richard Jackson knocked down the door, the gang was gone -- along with most of the home's copper.Jackson, who's largely in charge of fighting the growing copper theft trade in Minneapolis' Fourth Precinct, stepped gingerly around piles of trash, beer bottles, fresh dog feces, dead mice and used condoms."Welcome to my world," he said.Copper is the new underground currency. Its price has soared to more than $3 a pound, making it a worthwhile target of both novice scavengers and highly organized rings that hit several houses a day, pulling in as much as $20,000 a month. No longer just a nuisance, copper thieves are ransacking neighborhoods and often staying one step ahead of police.It's an international problem with local repercussions. From the theft of large copper statues in England, to millions of dollars of missing copper in post-Katrina New Orleans, to a $300,000 copper heist from the irrigation system of an Arizona farm, the thieves have caused financial havoc.In Minnesota, scavengers have dismembered a copper-coated Buddha, stolen statues from Theodore Wirth Park, snatched plates off of graves and stripped warehouses and construction sites of tens of thousands of dollars worth of the precious metal. "People say it's just a little copper," Jackson said, as he surveyed the north Minneapolis home. "But every case I see has two other common elements: drugs and weapons. And it's just devastating the neighborhood."Cannibalized houses can also be deadly. Twin Cities area police can point to maybe a dozen homes that have caught fire or exploded because copper thieves didn't bother to turn off the gas. One house near 3200 Colfax Av. N. was blown to bits in March. Such situations are dangerous for firefighters and neighbors, and get especially explosive when officers try to release some of the built-up gas from a home when the mixture is rich with gas and oxygen. "It gets worse before it gets better," said Sgt. Sean McKenna, a Minneapolis police arson inspector.Thieves most often hit foreclosed homes, but not always. They broke into Keili Mac's Minneapolis home while she was out of the country and took copper gas pipes. They left the gas on, the house exploded and the city demolished it. The victim returned to find her house gone."I'm amazed someone hasn't gotten killed or hurt yet," Jackson said.Copper stopper Jackson doesn't have the sexiest job in the department. It's dirty, dangerous and, he admits, often fruitless. But the cop they call "Action" has amassed a formidable database of the North Side's abandoned and abused properties, and the criminals drawn to them. His efforts to stem the copper trade have led to side benefits: caches of guns and drugs, and in one case $300,000 worth of stolen merchandise.In 18 months, Jackson has put 386 homes in the database, and has another 150 to 200 yet to add. "There are 500-plus boarded properties on the North Side, and over 800 in foreclosure on top of that," Jackson said. "I'm going to be very busy."On his computer, Jackson clicked on a photo of one home where thieves didn't bother to shut the water off when they took the copper. The water flowed from the second floor to the basement, then froze, creating a maze of ice caves and waterfalls caught in suspended animation. "It was actually one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen," he said. "But the damage was incredible."Jackson flips to another screen: mug shots of several gangs of copper thieves he has arrested. They often work in groups of six to 10 people, but one ring Jackson busted had 37 members. They usually work in one of two ways. The house on Penn was typical of one method of copper theft. Criminal multitaskers, the gang had been living in the house, dealing and doing drugs while they gutted it. "Someone's still living here," said Jackson, peering into a closet that had been turned into a tiny bedroom. "Female. She's sniffing glue."Inside the closet, the woman had tacked tiny stuffed animals to the wall. A small table held a toothbrush, a broken mirror, a tube of glue and drug paraphernalia. On the floor were snapshots of teens at a high school prom, and flashing gang signs."They'll be back for the rest of the copper," Jackson said.Orchestrated heistsOther gangs are more sophisticated, and more daring.In Hutchinson, thieves made off with 11 tons of spooled copper wire in 2007, and have not been caught. In St. Paul, two men knocked down a fence at a welding company with a tractor recently to get at the stuff. In November, police found three men in the sewer in St. Paul, cutting and stripping copper wire from lines belonging to Xcel Energy.In March, two Pierce County men were arrested in Wisconsin trying to sell more than $19,000 worth of copper wire stolen from a railroad company. A few days later, Jackson found Carl J. Velin had parked his camper inside a North Side warehouse, along with 6,000 pounds of stolen copper tubing.One particularly resourceful gang, which includes a father and two sons, works quickly in small teams. The first team, usually two men, will do a "run-through," knocking down the door, then unlocking windows in case police board the place back up before the second team gets there.The second group runs through the house with a battery-powered saw, taking all the easily accessible copper. They bag it and dump it by the trash. A third group drives by and picks it up, then brings it to a scrap metal dealer.The gang would hit four or five houses in a day, pulling down as much as $1,000 for a couple of hours' work.Other gangs specialize in warehouses, where they find pricier industrial copper wiring. After they ripped most of the wiring from a large building, they fed meth to two addicts who stripped the plastic coating off because it brought more money."When you're high on meth you can go for two days, stripping and cutting up wire," Jackson said. When he busted the group in 2007, he found the coating piled 8 feet high. He also found an assault rifle, "loaded and ready to go."The courts have consistently denied Jackson's requests for search warrants for drugs or weapons, so when he finds them he can only confiscate them. The suspects are charged only with copper theft."I've arrested some of these people four, five times, but the courts keep releasing them," he said.Courts are reluctant to allow police to use copper warrants to do far-reaching searches, according to Emery Adoradio of the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. He said it's often difficult to prove drugs or guns found at a scene belong to a particular person.Selling the scrapAt Kirschbaum and Krupp Metal Recycling in north Minneapolis, a few men pushing carts loaded with copper or other metals are lined at the door. A tractor nearby dumps a load of pipes and wire onto a conveyor belt leading into a compactor. A few minutes later it comes out in a 1,500-pound copper cube worth more than $4,500. It will be shipped to the East Coast, and perhaps eventually to China, where rapid development is fueling the need for vast amounts of copper and other metals.Today, the scrap haulers are contractors getting rid of materials from a renovation. Under a law that took effect in August, they must now show valid identification. Their personal information is put in a database and the scrap dealer takes a photo of them and their load in case the materials are later reported stolen. Video cameras outside record their license plates when they enter the yard, and scrap dealers now only pay with checks. The scrap yards also get bulletins from authorities when large amounts of copper are reported stolen.Tyler Gibbs, whose father owns the company, said technology improvements have made it easier for them to help authorities stop the illegal copper trade. In fact, the scrap dealer recently helped with the case in which police recovered 6,000 pounds of copper pipes."If someone comes in with 20 pounds of old copper, there's not really much you can do," Gibbs said. "But if someone brings in a big load of new copper with tags still on it, we know that looks funny."Rep. Paul Gardner, DFL-Shoreview, sponsored the bill to track copper sales better and said it was helping. But China's high demand for metals, combined with the foreclosure crisis, has created a kind of perfect storm for copper thieves. While some scrap dealers may have looked the other way at suspect customers in the past, "I think they realize they need to be part of the solution," Gardner said.But back at the house on Penn, Jackson knows the new law -- and cooperative scrap dealers -- can do only so much as long as there's need and greed.He noticed the house across the street just put up a "for sale" sign, and sits empty."I'll probably be back here in a couple of weeks," he said.Jon Tevlin • 612-673-1702

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