Metal theft is "the theft of items for the value of their constituent metals". It usually increases when worldwide prices for scrap metal rise, as has happened dramatically due to rapid industrialization in India and China. The metals most commonly stolen are copper, aluminium, brass, and bronze.
The defining characteristic of metal theft (besides being limited to items containing or made entirely from metal) is the motivation for the theft. Whereas other items are generally stolen for their intrinsic value (e.g., stealing an iPod for its value as an iPod), metal items are stolen for their more or less extrinsic value as raw material or commodities. Items are ultimately scrapped, or recycled, to provide material for making new products.
The rise of metal theft, surprisingly, has not encouraged exploitation of old landfill sites for metal.
Read more about Metal Theft: Motivations For Theft
Famous quotes containing the words metal and/or theft:
“And, indeed, is there not something holy about a great kitchen?... The scoured gleam of row upon row of metal vessels dangling from hooks or reposing on their shelves till needed with the air of so many chalices waiting for the celebration of the sacrament of food. And the range like an altar, yes, before which my mother bowed in perpetual homage, a fringe of sweat upon her upper lip and the fire glowing in her cheeks.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“Men are not therefore put to death, or punished for that their theft proceedeth from election; but because it was noxious and contrary to men’s preservation, and the punishment conducing to the preservation of the rest, inasmuch as to punish those that do voluntary hurt, and none else, frameth and maketh men’s wills such as men would have them.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)