Metal thieves risk life for cash

Thieves are taking more risks to cash in on the high price of metal

One man has died as the soaring value of scrap metal drives thieves to increasingly extreme measures to get their hands on valuable metals.

West Yorkshire Police have revealed one thief tried to pull copper bars out of a live industrial fuse box when it exploded. The man later died.

Now a purge on the theft and trade in valuable metals will see officers targeting thieves and scrapyards.

Det Insp Duncan MacNay said the operation was proving successful.

He said the man who tried to take components from a live electrical unit had not understood the dangers.

Explosion

"He was in the process of removing copper bars from a switchbox within a building when there was a huge explosion which caused him very significant injury.

"He managed to drive to the house of a person that he knew, but then as a direct consequence of the electric shock he received sadly died."

The county-wide purge has already seen two people arrested on suspicion of metal theft in the Low Moor area of Bradford.

The pair were held on suspicion of stealing scrap metal worth £3,000 and a low-loader vehicle was seized by officers.

Theft of all metal materials has grown by 150% over the last two years, according to nationally collated police figures.

In February, officials at Doncaster Council warned pedestrians and cyclists' lives were being put in danger because of a spate of thefts of drain covers from roads.

Some 40 covers had been stolen in one week alone, leaving gaping holes on the town's roads.

A spokesman for the council said it was believed the covers were being taken under the mistaken belief that they were valuable.

A person responsible for similar thefts in the town in 2006 had been jailed for six months.