Metal theft - anatomy of a resource crime

This paper was drafted in Summer 2008. It features ideas and events that could not fit into my published paper 'Assets under attack: metal theft, the built environment and the dark side of the global recycling market' Environmental Law and Management 20, 176-183 (2008). At the time I intended to develop the draft into a companion piece to that paper, but other projects distracted my attention. Accordingly this draft paper is a little dated in its focus upon pre 2008 examples, however its conjectures on the nature and motives of metal thieves may still be worthy of some attention. I therefore offer this paper to public view on an 'as is' basis. If anyone finds my comments of interest then I would be glad to receive any comments and might thus be spurred to update the treatment and examples featured in the present draft.