Connecticut law targeting scrap metal theft ignored by some dealers; Register investigation exposes loopholes (video, photos)

Sims Metal Management in North Haven "is not your grandfather's scrapyard." This is the ferrous metal yard. Mara Lavitt/Register

By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo
Investigations Editor
mtuccitto@nhregister.com / Twitter: @nhrinvestigate

On an afternoon in March, two New Haven Register reporters drove a Ford Freestyle SUV carrying a newspaper honor box into the lot of a Derby scrap metal business, M. Jacobs & Sons on Factory Street.
We wanted to see if the staff would ask for identification, or ask if we had permission to sell the large, metal, coin-operated Register honor box. The boxes are on streets and in plazas across the region and have been targeted by thieves and sold for scrap metal.
An employee asked us what we were selling, and we were truthful. The employee glanced in the window and told us to drive around back to dump it.

We unloaded the box and were paid $6 cash for it. No one ever asked us for any identification. We were not asked whether we worked at the Register or had any right to sell it.
The Derby business’ performance was the worst in a recent undercover sting operation in which Register reporters sold scrap metal to businesses in the region to see if they would follow the law.
To try to make it easier for police to catch metal thieves, lawmakers have created rules for scrap metal businesses to follow, like asking for identification from sellers.

Read the full story here.