Valley Is Rich Lode for Metal Thieves

On a recent evening in the city’s Mid-Wilshire district, half a dozen small pickup trucks rolled up to the curb in front of a nondescript apartment building.

The occupants bailed out and huddled on the sidewalk--”roll call” for the Toyota gang.

One by one, the trucks drove into the night, most bound for the San Fernando Valley, where they would meander side streets and alleyways, prowling for metal to steal.

“It’s like a shopping mall for thieves out there,” said LAPD Det. Thomas Mann, referring to the concentration of Valley industrial companies with outdoor storage areas.

“They can just drive around and look for what they want,” he said.

Primarily what they want is copper or aluminum, which can fetch as much as a buck a pound at local scrap yards. Typically, the materials are stolen from fenced outdoor lots. Thieves either cut the locks or, in the case of sliding chain-link fences, simply remove the gate from its tracks. They then load the loot--anything from high-tech antennas to aluminum computer casings--into the back of their pickups and drive away.

Citywide, police say, metal theft accounts for about $700,000 a year in losses to Los Angeles businesses.

Indiana Plumbing Co. in Van Nuys was a recent victim.

Thieves made off with 8,000 pounds of copper tubing--worth more than $5,000--that was left overnight on pallets in the company’s back lot.

“We don’t normally leave stuff like that outside,” said Cindy Rutan, company manager. “We just ran out of daylight so we didn’t have time to bring it in.”

The company has since installed an additional security system at the site, Rutan said.

A similar scenario resulted in theft at Delta Fabrications in Chatsworth late last year.

In that case, thieves absconded with 300 aluminum computer casings. As scrap, the haul was worth maybe $100. But to the company, which had paid workers to press the metal into a usable form, the loss was far greater.

“It’s partly our fault because the pallets were left outside,” said one Delta employee who declined to give his name. “Somebody was in a hurry to go home.”

Opportunism, said Det. Mann, is a defining characteristic of the Toyota gang, which he suspects of carrying off the Delta caper and dozens like it.

Sometimes the gang even collects metal that is legitimately scrap, he said, “but if you give them the chance to steal, they’ll take it.”

Mann is the LAPD’s sole detective devoted to policing the surprisingly brisk trade in hot metal.

He’s responsible for inspecting 88 Los Angeles scrap yards that buy directly from the public.

“One guy is not enough,” said Mann’s former partner, Det. Jim Battle, who was recently promoted to head the department’s pawn shop unit.

But, for now anyway, “Mann’s Metal Unit” is all there is. Not that’s he’s not making a dent.

On an average day, Mann hits 15 scrap yards, placing about a dozen loads of metal on a police “hold.” The hold bars the scrap yard from selling the suspect stuff for 90 days while Mann investigates. Anyone who brings items other than household-generated metal, such as refrigerators, stoves or other appliances, must fill out a form with name, driver’s license number and address, giving police a lead on a possible suspect.

“In most cases, I work backward,” Mann said. “I’ve got a crime, and I’m looking for a victim.”

Many cases lead back to members of the Toyota gang, a group of 30 to 50 suspected thieves, most of whom are related in one way or another, Mann said. The gang is so named for its members’ penchant for the Japanese-made pickup trucks.

Since police identified the gang four years ago, about 50 suspected members have been arrested in connection with metal thefts, Mann said.

“But they’re all back out,” the detective lamented. “I think the longest sentence was a year.”

Mann is somewhat encouraged by the fact that copper, which until recently sold for a dollar a pound, is down to 65 cents, reducing demand for the metal.

But he is equally troubled by something he witnessed earlier this month: a suspected member of the Toyota gang making a delivery in a General Motors truck.

“They’re getting bigger trucks,” he quipped. “I wonder what that means.”