Why are thieves stealing bleachers and soccer goals?

With the price of metal soaring and the local economy struggling, Beaufort County has fallen victim to a crime that's become commonplace in other parts of the country.

In a week's time, thieves have made off with thousands of dollars worth of aluminum soccer goals and park benches, which were probably sold for scrap,

officials say.

The goals, 40 of them worth over $130,000, were taken from a storage yard behind the Bluffton Recreation Center at night on June 26, according to a Beaufort County sheriff's report.

"We had (the goals) in a fenced-in enclosure with barbed wire that's locked," said county Public Works director Eddie Bellamy. "A year ago, a whole bunch of folks would have said that's a waste of money putting a fence around a bunch of aluminum pipes."

The following weekend thieves

dismantled and took the foot rests, handrails and seats from bleachers at a St. Helena Island baseball field, an estimated $13,000 loss.

"Who would have thought people would go in and disassemble the thing?" asked Bellamy, whose office also maintains county parks. "This is someone working hard to commit their crime, and they're not getting a whole bunch of money out of it."

For months thieves also have been raiding the county's waste drop-off centers for broken appliances. The county receives some money for old appliances, so Bellamy took steps to make appliance piles harder to get to.

"But now they're stealing perfectly serviceable stuff," he said, exasperated.

It's not just Beaufort County that's suffering. Governments across the country have been seeing things disappear, most recently manhole covers and sewer grates.

In areas hit hard by mortgage foreclosures, thieves have targeted empty houses, stripping wiring, breaking into air conditioner units for copper, and in some cases, leaving with the kitchen sink.

Demand for metals in fast-developing countries such as China, India, Brazil and Russia has pushed up the prices of aluminum, iron and copper. The value of aluminum doubled in the last five years, reaching about $1.33 a pound, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. In that same period, the price of copper has more than tripled to around $3.75 a pound, and a ton of scrap iron rocketed to $517, more than quadrupling.

For longtime junk sellers, the high commodity prices have changed their jobs

dramatically.

Dale Renfrow of Rincon, Ga., started buying and selling junk metal about 25 years ago, and he advertises to pick up junked vehicles and scrap metal in

Beaufort County.

"I've been in this all these years, and now all of a sudden, the price is up, and everybody and his left-handed brother is doing it," Renfrow said. "The number of people doing this that I wouldn't trust from across the street is probably

75 percent."

As long as the price of metals is high and the economy is sputtering, local and state officials will be faced with the challenge of preventing such crimes.

Some states, including South Carolina, have been considering legislation to make selling stolen scrap more difficult. S.C. legislators passed a law last year making it illegal to have more than 25 pounds of copper or aluminum without being able to verify its source.

Sheriff P.J. Tanner said he supports a stronger law forcing scrap recyclers to check the identities of people coming in to sell metal.

"We need to be ID-ing," Tanner said. "There shouldn't be a problem filling out a form similar to what they do at pawn shops."

Such laws have been passed in Missouri and Kansas. They require scrap recyclers to check IDs when someone brings in more than $50 worth of materials. Those laws have been criticized by law enforcement officials because sellers can easily skirt them just by making multiple trips to the junkyard.

Michigan is considering a tougher bill that would stop dealers from paying metal collectors in cash. Sellers would also have to provide proof of identity, and dealers would be forced to keep copies of the sellers' driver's licenses or ID cards. It would include stiff fines for dealers caught buying stolen materials.

Even if South Carolina adopted a similarly strict measure, the county still would have to contend with the fact that thieves easily can take stolen metal to nearby Georgia, home to the area's major metal recyclers, where rules are different.

Also, it can be extremely difficult for a dealer to differentiate between stolen and legally collected scrap metal. Thieves have been known to cut and melt down metals so they are unrecognizable.

Bruce Savage, a spokesman for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, said larger recyclers are already regularly checking sellers' IDs, which he said helps.

His group is also advising local law enforcement officials, frequent theft victims and recyclers to form working groups to come up with solutions.

In areas that take that approach, he said, "the word spreads that, 'Hey, this is not an easy mark.' "

Meanwhile, Bellamy said he's looking at ways to tie down property at parks and boat landings to deter future thefts.

He's considering spot welding the bolts on county-owned bleachers, which would make them more difficult to steal. The drawback is that would make it harder for county employees to move them if they're needed elsewhere.

"We've asked for increased patrols from the Sheriff's Office," he said, but "the thing is, just how many cops do we want to pay for?"