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Thieves take to great drain robbery
From church roofs and grand statues to drain covers and even the humble tweezer, objects made of metal are being targeted by thieves in France looking to cash in on a surge in raw material prices, the police have said.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 February 14, 2007
Paris: From church roofs and grand statues to drain covers and even the humble tweezer, objects made of metal are being targeted by thieves in France looking to cash in on a surge in raw material prices, the police have said.
Thefts of copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel were up 144 per cent in France last year.
"We are witnessing a real pillage of companies' assets," Colonel Philippe Schneider, who heads a police division that specialises in countering such crime, told reporters. "Everything can be stolen, everything can be sold - cables, drain covers, sculptures," Schneider said. "We even had 300 kg of tweezers stolen."
Other targets included plane doors, phone booth floors, car wheel rims, cemetery gates and a church roof made of zinc. Copper, widely used in construction and industry, became a big target for thieves last year as prices of the metal doubled to $8,800 a tonne at one point due to booming Asia demand.
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