Times are tough, and the thieves have gotten bold. City officials in Mobile reported an outbreak in recent weeks of a crime that would sound absurd if it were not so dangerous: the theft of manhole covers and storm drainage grates from city streets.
Scrap Metal Economics
The motive is straightforward. Cast iron has weight, and weight has value at a scrap yard. Thieves have been prying up covers and grates and selling them, according to city officials, for what amounts to a few dollars apiece.
The city’s cost is a great deal higher. Replacing a manhole cover or a storm grate is expensive, and the municipal budget is not in a condition to absorb an unplanned run of them — the city is in the middle of a fight over an $18.5 million deficit.
The Real Hazard
The greater problem is the hole left behind.
A missing cover leaves an open shaft in the pavement, often invisible until a driver is on top of it. City officials warned that the absence of the covers and grates creates a serious risk to motorists, and by extension to cyclists and pedestrians who may not see the opening in low light or standing water.
The Mobile Police Department asked the public to help. Residents who see anyone who is not clearly a city or utility worker tampering with a manhole cover or drainage grate are urged to call 911.
The Charges Available
Here the story takes a frustrating turn for prosecutors. The offenses that fit the conduct are, under Alabama law as applied to these thefts, relatively minor:
- Theft in the third degree, if an officer witnesses the theft itself;
- Receiving stolen property in the third degree, if an individual is found in possession of a stolen cover or grate;
- Receiving stolen property in the third degree, if a person knowingly pays for the stolen property — a provision that reaches the scrap buyer as well as the thief.
All three are misdemeanors, carrying a maximum penalty of not more than one year in jail.
According to authorities, the thefts do not fit the statute governing public endangerment — which is the charge that would seem, intuitively, to match the actual danger created. Removing a heavy iron cover from a hole in a public street and leaving it open to traffic is treated, legally, as a property crime measured by the scrap value of the metal, not by the harm the open hole could cause.
A Recession Crime
Metal theft is one of the reliable indicators of an economic downturn. When commodity prices are up and cash is short, copper wiring vanishes from construction sites, air conditioning coils are stripped from vacant houses, and catalytic converters disappear from parking lots. Municipal infrastructure — cast iron sitting unattended in the public right of way, unguarded and heavy with resale value — is simply the next item on the list.
For residents, the practical advice is unglamorous but worth repeating: report open manholes and missing grates promptly, and treat any unexpected opening in a Mobile street with the caution it deserves.