Now metal thieves target £100 batteries

Thieves are stealing £100 batteries from green telephone junction boxes in Willenhall and Wolverhampton streets, police revealed today.

The back-up batteries are being stolen in the latest metal thefts trend. There were two thefts in Willenhall, in Reedly Road on the Beacon estate, and Durham Avenue, Shepwell Green.

The junction boxes, which include all the cables for the telephone network, connecting them from house to house, have also been plundered in Villiers Avenue and Millfields Road in Bilston.

A man and a woman from Willenhall have been arrested in connection with the thefts.

They are now on police bail pending further inquiries.

West Midlands Police spokeswoman Joanne Hunt said: "Police are investigating the theft of a number of back-up batteries from telephone junction boxes in Willenhall and Wolverhampton.

"Two people, a 31-year-old woman and a 27-year-old man, both from Willenhall, have been arrested in connection with the thefts. They are currently on police bail while further inquiries take place."

The Reedly Road and Durham Avenue thefts took place on November 4, and the Millfields Road theft the day before.

The Villiers Avenue crime happened on October 8.

Metal thieves have been plaguing the Black Country in recent weeks, with more than 900 crimes in just a three-month period.

The crime wave has been fuelled by soaring metal prices, which have been triggered by construction booms in the Middle East and China.

This week, the Express & Star revealed that a German shepherd dog plunged down a manhole in Walsall town centre.

The cover had been stolen by thieves, one of several similar thefts in the region.

In the past few weeks, thieves have stolen copper cable between temporary traffic lights in Willenhall and £1,000 of scrap brass castings from Abbey Saddlery, Walsall