Thread: Metal Thieves Caught With Pocketfuls of Railroad Spikes

Mar-29-2008 16:00
Alleged Metal Thieves Caught With Pocketfuls of Railroad Spikes
Salem-News.com
Three arrested for removing rail road spikes from Portland Western Railroad line.


File photo courtesy: Photo courtesy: orblogs.com

(LAKE OSWEGO, Ore.) - Police arrested two adults and a juvenile Friday evening at about 7:00 PM for removing rail spikes from the Portland Western rail road near SW Boones Ferry Road and Jean Way in Lake Oswego.

Officer Matt Gill of the Lake Oswego Police Department says he saw three people on the tracks and stopped to see what they were doing.

One reportedly carried a long pry bar and another had pockets bulging with rail spikes. Officer Gill says he then discovered they had removed over 100 spikes from the ties as well other metal. Gill believes the motive was financial and the three intended to sell the spikes as scrap metal.

This is another chapter in a growing book on Oregon's public safety being eroded by methamphetamine users who become desperate and seriously directed in dismantling anything from railroads to bridges, signs, and even fences.

In fact, Salem-News.com learned yesterday that police in southern Arizona are being contracted by the federal government to guard watch metal fence supplies that are staged along the border for constructing a new border fence. While we work to build a fence to keep illegal immigrants out, meth users are stealing the actual fence.
Those arrested were 21-year old Mark Mercer, an unemployed man living at 5750 Charles Circle in Lake Oswego, 20-year old Russel McMurray, an unemployed man living at 4745 Oakridge Road in lake Oswego, and 17-year old Evan Angel, a student from Lake Oswego.

All three were charged by Lake Oswego Police with First Degree Theft, First Degree Criminal Mischief, and First Degree Criminal Trespass.

Mercer and McMurry were lodged in Clackamas County Jail, Angel was lodged at the Clackamas County Juvenile Reception and Assessment Center.

A railroad spokesman told police it will cost about $1,500.00 to repair the damage to the line.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/marc ... -29-08.php

About four years ago I read about how metal thieves were plundering throughout economically hardhit Argentina--stealing balcony railings among other things. Now it is hitting here.

I guess La Raza would spin this to say . They where helping out. Only pulling the rusted spikes out . And it's not meth they talk but cold medicine . poor poor illegals , doing same thing here as they did in Med-e-co . SI

These guys should be charged with terrorism for messing with public rails systems like that. That is about the equivalent of messing with the engines or landing gear on commercial jets!

What are those spikes made out of? Steel? Where can they trade them in and for how much?

W

I found the steel market prices here:

http://demolitionscrapmetalnews.com/?page_id=17

It looks like it's going for about $338.40 a ton. I would think these guys must have been pretty desperate to steal steel. Of course they are such hard working people. NOT!

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

These guys should be charged with terrorism for messing with public rails systems like that. That is about the equivalent of messing with the engines or landing gear on commercial jets!

What are those spikes made out of? Steel? Where can they trade them in and for how much?

W

They are just plain old steel and are not really worth that much unless you have hundereds of lbs of it and I doubt they could carry that much.
These guys are either out to wreck a train or so whacked out on meth they have no idea of what they are doing or both.
They can take them down to a metal scrap yard but with what they can carry by hand I doubt they would make enough to go to McDonalds for a burger.

This particular case was not caused by immigrants or aliens. At least not directly. It was particularly dangerous. Why people are stealing metal is a complicated issue.