7
May
2013
By Calvin at 08:46 GMT, 13 years ago
It was interesting to read that the UK is not alone in suffering from the problems associated with metal theft. It not only seems that similar crimes are occurring in the US, but they have been introducing similar legislation to prevent them. For example, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., standing in front of St. John de LaSalle Roman Catholic Church Niagara Falls, N.Y. last week (which has suffered no less than three metal theft incidents) announced the introduction of The Metal Theft Prevention Act to “crack down on the bandits and the scrap yards that profit off their booty”.
The new legislation will require documentation of the sellers’ right to scrap the metal, require scrap yards to keep records of the people who turn in the metal, limit scrap yards to a $100 cash return with any amount above that being paid by cheque and would make stealing metal from critical infrastructure a federal crime.
Some of the measures are similar to those introduced by our own Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, which was approved by the UK Parliament on 12 February this year. The implementation of the UK Act, which was welcomed by our industry, will take place in October this year in order to give the industry time to make the necessary changes to their trading practices.
I shall be watching carefully to see if this new legislation impacts on what has been a serious and growing problem.
Original US story: Lockport Union-Sun & Journal http://lockportjournal.com/local/x326074831/Bill-to-reduce-metal-thefts-is-pushed
