Police in scrapyard blitz on metal thefts

Police officers across the West Midlands were today stopping vans and visiting scrap yards in the second "day of action" to tackle metal theft.

In Dudley, officers started visiting scrap yards at 8am to check for stolen metal before setting up check points in Cakemore Road, Halesowen, and opposite Brierley Hill Fire Station.

Dozens of vans were checked and one person arrested. The exercise, part of Operation Steel, comes after gas meters were stolen from homes in Lower Gornal over the weekend.

Sgt Mick Wennen said along with common targets like copper piping and lead flashing being stolen the number of more unusual metal thefts was on the rise.

"We've had goal-posts taken, letterboxes, manhole covers — there's nothing they won't take," he said.

"Catalytic converters are quite popular to steal at the moment as they can contain gold and sometimes even platinum.

"Since the start of Operation Steel however we have seen overall metal thefts fall by around 60 per cent.

"We will continue to hold days like this and hopefully eventually stamp it out."

After a high number of vans stopped first thing fewer were spotted as the morning progressed.

Sergeant Wennen added that this was fairly common as "tatters" or scrap dealers would warn one another about operations.

"It may be that scrap yards are also calling their clients telling them not to do business today and they don't want to get into trouble either," he said.

"Word travels fast."

Officers were accompanied by representatives from the Benefits Agency, Dudley Council's environmental protection department, licensing officers and workers from BT Open Reach who were looking for stolen cables.

Similar operations were also taking place today in Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall and Solihull.

It follows a similar day of action on September 27 where scrap yards across the Black Country were targeted.

During a similar action day in Dudley last month, police carried out spot-checks on vans, inspected the borough's 37 scrapyards and visited 40 known offenders.