An undercover police detective posing as a hobo sold $2.60 worth of scrap metal to the United Iron and Metal Co., and now the Baltimore-based company is charged with 10 criminal violations that could bring up to $26,000 in fines.
The charges, filed Tuesday, allege that United Iron has been violating a city public ordinance requiring buyers of scrap metal to file records of their transactions with the city Police Department.
Detectives began the investigation after the recent arrest of a homeless man who said he stole brass placards off downtown buildings and sold them to a scrap metal dealer, said police Sgt. Michael Tabor.
"We'd had about 30 or 40 brass plaques pried off downtown buildings. They would just yank them right off the walls," Sergeant Tabor said. "This particular hobo we arrested told us that he had sold several of them" as scrap metal.
The plaques were primarily name plates belonging to lawyers' offices, police said.
To check out the story, police sent a detective dressed as a hobo -- complete with a scruffy brown overcoat, a skull cap and pushing a rickety cart of his supposed possessions -- to the United Iron plant.
"They bought it hook, line and sinker. He sold them some brass fittings and some old copper for $2.60, and they never took down any information," Sergeant Tabor said. But the company refused to buy a brass plaque that the detective offered to sell.
United Iron, in the 2500 block of Wilkens Ave., operates a yard that every day grinds 600 cars into scrap metal. The company also purchases other scrap metals, but a city ordinance requires buyers to write down the name and address of each seller and send a transaction sheet to city police.
Acting on the information from the undercover detective, police raided the United Iron offices and seized computer records showing the company had bought scrap metal on numerous occasions and failed to report the sale to police, Sergeant Tabor said.
David Workum, the general manager at United Iron, declined to comment on the charges. United Iron representatives have been ordered to a District Court hearing on Jan. 20.
Police said they did not find any brass plaques at the plant. Investigators believe the thefts have been committed by homeless persons looking to cash the metal in for $5 to $10 apiece.