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Under legislation introduced today, scrap metal dealers will have to get thumb prints, photograph cars, and provide descriptions of people selling scrap metal such as copper or aluminum. Scrap metal prices have skyrocketed in recent years, making it profitable for thieves to raid air conditioners or cemeteries looking for metal to resell. State Senator Victor Crist says it has become almost epidemic.

“Mausoleums with 18,000 dollar bronze doors in cemeteries, they put them up and months later, the doors are gone. Plaques, memorializing loved ones, in cemeteries, dug up, stolen, gone. Air conditioning units, churches, nonprofits, schools, businesses torn out, metal taken from it and taken to recycle places.” said Crist.

The legislation would also make it a felony if a thief disrupts electrical power or phone service while trying to steal wire.