Thieves strike gold in metal of all kinds

By ADAM SMELTZ and LEO STRUPCZEWSKI Courier-Post Staff • July 27, 2008 When the air conditioning wasn't on at Macedonia AME Church last Sunday the Rev. Mark Tyler figured one of the units, often temperamental, had just frozen again. Wrong. One of the three units at the church had been ransacked. Every metal part of any value was gone. Not even a cage that encased the air conditioner had stopped the theft. Metal thieves have been getting creative in the past couple years -- not just in South Jersey, but across the United States. Driven by high international prices for scrap metal and a troubled domestic economy, scavengers are scooping out the stuff anywhere they can find it. They've taken aluminum and copper parts from at least a half-dozen air conditioners in Glassboro, police said. In Gloucester Township, about 18 catalytic... [read full story]