Way to stop it is to warn and monitor all facilities that except copper with jail time if they accept stolen copper, especially wire. Manufactured copper has to be given to a facility to melt down. Go after them too.
How do you prove it’s stolen? More importantly how do you expect the business to figure out it’s stolen before they purchase? People bring in legitimately acquired scrap metal, including copper, all the time. I knew guys growing up that had that as their primary source of income, buy/ find junked cars and other random metals (usually in impromptu “dump sites” that happen on the edge of towns), take them apart, sell the metal. How does a business tell the difference between them and a guy dissecting houses under construction? That’s part of why thieves are into this stuff, no serial numbers, once they safely get away from the theft site copper is copper.
Way to stop it is to warn and monitor all facilities that except copper with jail time if they accept stolen copper, especially wire. Manufactured copper has to be given to a facility to melt down. Go after them too.”
Yes accepting stolen property knowingly is a crime.
I personally like the local laws like needing the free permit from the sheriff department in order to transport scrap unless it is your own? Honor system gee?