By Mike Rush
St. Louis (KSDK) - They're the places most stolen copper goes to market, scrap yards.
"Five million dollars from our citizens going to scrap yards," said Captain Dan Howard with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
They are legitimate businesses, but also where crooks can often easily turn stolen goods into quick cash.
To find out how easily, we took our hidden camera inside and got results that had some scratching their heads and others running for cover.
Here's how the conversation went when Mike Rush approached one of the scrap yard workers:
Rush: "Are you the owner of the place, manager?"
Scrap yard worker: "No, but I'm a guy that doesn't want to talk to you, so you better get out of my face."
Our team visited several scrap yards and most of the copper we brought was clearly new. Some still with the bar codes on them and a copper coil was still in the box.
"Huge red flag," said Steve Parrish. He owns the copper we used. Parrish bought it for repairs to his rental properties.
"I just can't believe that anybody that would see that coming through their door wouldn't know that that's stolen property," he said.
Five of the six scrap yards we visited were willing to buy our copper without seriously questioning where we got it or why we were willing to sell new stuff for pennies on the dollar.
One guy even removed the insulation from the new coil to get an accurate weight.
Only one dealer flat out refused to buy our new copper.
"Because we just can't," he said. "The police don't want us to buy it."
Watching our findings, St. Louis City Police Captain Dan Howard is both encouraged and discouraged. All the scrap yards followed the existing regulation governing the sale of copper in the city, asking for identification, but, "I wish people would be more inquisitive of why you're bringing a brand new coil to be scrapped," said Howard.
At the yard, where the worker removed the insulation, Rush approached the worker who removed the insulation.
Rush: "We wanted to talk to somebody about copper sales."
Scrap yard worker: "Can't help you. You're going to have to talk to someone else."
Rush: "Who do we talk to?"
Scrap yard worker: "Nobody here."
Another man, the owner, did talk. And saw no need to ask questions about the questionable copper.
"What should we say, 'hey, what job is it left over and blah, blah, blah?' Not no way," the owner said.
A new ordinance Howard played a big part in writing will require scrap yards to ask.
The Gubin brothers, fourth generation scrap yard owners, spent time and money working with police for tougher regulations. So they were shocked to see our footage of one of their workers accepting our copper.
They decided to fire him on the spot.
"All of our employees know what the policy is. So this was a mistake on their behalf. Take it for what it's worth, they're going to have to suffer the consequences," said Adam Gubin.
The bill with tougher regulations for selling copper will take effect in St. Louis in early December.
Among other things, it requires scrap yards to mail checks to sellers instead of paying cash. Sellers will also have to show proof of ownership to sell new materials.
Captain Howard says surrounding areas in the metro area want to use the ordinance as a guide to change their laws.
KSDK