Cops and Scrappers

Hey all... Just looking for stories or input with anyone's involvement with cops while scrapping. Quick note... I"m BOTH a cop and a scrapper. I never understood scrappers UNTIL I started scrapping about a year ago.
As long as its legal stuff I ENCOURAGE guys I get calls for or stop on the road. I scrap for two reasons.. Money (obviously) but I'm also an environment kind of guy and hate seeing junk dumped on the roads, fields and woods.
Anyway, just looking for stories good or bad about your experiences with police while scrapping. No need to sugar coat your stories (I know cops are idiots a lot of the times, especially when they don't understand something)

I've been reported driving around a fairly rich neighborhood at 3am with a "truck bed full of suspicious things". I guess a neighbor thought I was stealing.
Cop caught up with me (I was in the process of digging through a huge pile from people that were moving when he pulled up on me). He ran my plates and license, asked the general questions about my intentions, encouraged me to continue (said it'll help the trash guys out in the morning), I told him I am not taking anything past the sidewalk and he left. Didn't give me a warning or anything, just a "have a good one".

He said it's not illegal, once the trash hits the curb it's considered "public property" until the garbage guys pick it up.

But I'm surprised it's only happened that once. There are prison units and many police stations in this area.

got pulled over the other day, had the silverado LOADED lol bed was completely full, cops pulls me over comes to the window and goes" hello im pulling you over because i never knew someones could load a pickup like that" i lol'd and started up a convo about the scrap and the "thing blue line" decal i have on my bumper, nice guy he said i was on the right track in life, i guess being fairly young (24) he figured i wasn't the average young kid into other sorts of (garbage ie: drugs and such) anyways he wished me luck and that was it... not guna lied him pulling me over had my head twisted before he got to the window and said that line lol.

I've been pulled over on my way to the yard "because the sheets of metal I had in the truck looked like they were about to blow out." I don't think they would have gone anywhere. I had them tied down with ratchet straps.

Early one Saturday morning I was stopped while looking for scrap. The police looked through my scrap. I had about 10 lbs. of copper wire that had been given to me from work. They refused to believe that it had been given to me and thought that I had stole it. I offered for them to call my boss at which time they backed off and wanted to offer me some good places to find more scrap at which time I thanked them and we both went on our merry ways.

So far it sounds pretty positive. From a law enforcement standpoint, the copper prices are wreaking havoc with wire thefts. Guys are electricuting themselves daily trying to steal wire. From a scrapper stand point its great... like a part time job!!! I pulled into the scrapyard last Friday and two local cars were in there. They seemed suprised to see me when I pulled in with my trailer and jumped out and waved.

I posted a thing a few days ago about the crackdown here in SC on "Illegal transportation of Non-Ferrous Metal". There is an old law that states that "individuals can not transport more than 25 lbs of non0ferrous metals on the highways of SC without calling their local Sheriff office and getting a permit". Then you have to have proper documentation proving where it came from ,blah, blah ,blah....
Has anyone else checked on their local laws to see if anything is in place?
How about you NJSouth ? Are there Laws in NJ about stuff like this?

no nothing crazy like that here in Nj im in central, have not heard anything like that.

If the they started that around here, I'd be in trouble. Lots of copper wire and tubing. No idea where it all came from.

Was cleaning up a family friends ranch last summer. Worked there all day, on friday, so was VERY tired when i left. Go all the way back to town, and saw that i left my scrap metalscrap metalscrap metalscrap metal wallet in the barn i was workin in.

Having no choice (Believe me i exhausted all options) I drove back to the sticks. ("Sticks" being rough idaho country, roughly 65 miles away from where i live). I get to the property, almost retrieve my wallet, when 2 Sheriff's roll up on me. On private property. They told me i was reported as a "cattle thief". I laughed and said im not going to be puttin any cattle in the back of my truck. We talked for a minute about what i was doing. Ended up nothing happening, but was still enough of a laugh.

I understood why they stopped me. I have an issue with them coming onto private property. But its nothing too serious.

Glad to have ya here!

*I left my wallet in the barn.

Have no idea where all the "metalscrap" stuff came from.

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Originally Posted by TheHoss

*I left my wallet in the barn.

Have no idea where all the "metalscrap" stuff came from.

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heh, don't worry about that. It is a word censor to help keep the forum clean and family friendly. That is all.

@parrothead Ahh. I didnt say anything on family friendly, did i? I sure aint here to offend nobody haha.

What part of Idaho are you in?

Just outside of Boise here.

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Originally Posted by parrothead

heh, don't worry about that. It is a word censor to help keep the forum clean and family friendly. That is all.

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It's getting a little off topic, but while I understand and fully agree with the use of an auto-censor function, the use of simple asterisks in place of the censored word makes more sense to me. Like this: ****

Been doing this for alot of years. Never had a scrapping incident with police until this year. We came up with 7 cars missing at a storage property about 20 miles from home. It was our choice to involve police.

I did do a 4 ton clean up for a local sheriff's deputy a couple miles from me last month, if that counts.

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Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper

What part of Idaho are you in?

Just outside of Boise here.

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Same here buddy. Meridian, about a stones throw away from the meridian middle.

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Originally Posted by c4f5

Been doing this for alot of years. Never had a scrapping incident with police until this year. We came up with 7 cars missing at a storage property about 20 miles from home. It was our choice to involve police.

I did do a 4 ton clean up for a local sheriff's deputy a couple miles from me last month, if that counts.

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Here I went and ran my typing fingers. Just yesterday, on my way home for the day, I got pulled by state patrol in MY town. Must have been a new guy. There are 2500 people in my entire county, and I know most of them...I didn't know him. Stae Patrol were crawling all over our little slice of Heaven yesterday. I gather they were looking for something in particular. He was kind of rude and knit picked alot of little things on my truck. His BS excuse for pulling me was a verry slight bend on my trailer license plate.

So to all of you police officers out there.......do your job, by all means, we appreciate it....even if I am the job! If I am doing something wrong or illegal, please correct me, but I think y'all can find something more productive to do than harrass the locals over petty nothingness. However, my time and my tax dollars are very valuable to me. Please don't waste either one. Thanks for reading.

Okay My story doesn't have an ending at the moment because it is currently happening...

It was about a year ago that I lost my job (of 5 years) and apartment due to the bank foreclosure problems. I

luckily was a scrapper, when ever I had a moment to spare, that I was able to keep myself out of the gutters

and move with my sister to a "Quiet" small town in Arizona called Youngtown. With no scrappers in the area I

thought I would be making good money. My girlfriend and I were the ODD BALLS in this area, and so it was hard

for us at first. But unlike the average scrapper, when we would see a trash pile, before we would touch it, my

girlfriend and I would go knock on the door of the house it was in front of, and ask the owner if we could go

through it. Out of respect. And got some respect back from some of the towns folks. We were doing good, until

the day we met HER! We weren't properly introduced for the simple fact that we still have no clue what her name

is. We don't know anything about her, just that she is a MCSO Sheriff. It was 11pm when she pulled us over

with a lame excuse of a trailer brake light wasn't working. . She went to her car and ran my info into her

computer and when she came back, she gave me a warning that I needed to change the address on my drivers

license. Nothing else was said about the trailer's brake light. She let us go, and once we were far enough

around the corner for her to no longer see us. We pulled over and my girlfriend jumped out of the car and we

did a brake light test. The lights were fine. About a 2 weeks later our scrap mobile took a crap on us. (Would

you believe it died right in front of Glendale Police Station parkinglot? Well, it did.) It was over a month

before we got another car. Everything was looking up, or so we thought! We were driving the neighborhood alleys

looking for scrap with a friend, its still early in the morning so there hasn't been many cars on the road. We

pull out of the alley and are stopped at a stop sign, I want to turn left but there is a tree blocking my view

to check for traffic. I pull up a bit and see one of Youngtown's finest, coming my way. I wait till he passes

then turn left. I see from the rear view that he has flipped around and is now behind me. He hits his lights

and I'm already cussing him out, but I stop as he comes toward my car. He stated that he pulled us over because

I failed to stop at the stop sign, that I was stopped at, when I first saw him. Then 2 other police cars pull

up one in front and one in back of my car, like they were blocking me in. They searched my car they searched my

friend, and a lady cop searched my girl. Of course, they found nothing. Nothing except that the car wasn't

registered to me yet so I wasn't insured. My mistake, I know. But I corrected my mistake before my court date,

hoping it would reduce the fine they would be giving me. It was reduced from $989.00 to $595.00 plus the

"Running a stop sign" ticket, $200.00. This whole town, the Courts, and the Judge are cruepted and I think it

is all a plot to bring money into the town. The reason I say this is because strangely the courts accidently

made a mistake of suspending my drivers license. I was fortunate to find out when I was pulled over by Peoria

cops in a parking lot walking to my car, so I was safe from getting a ticket. I went back to the courts and

they said it was their fault and "FIXED" the error. Since I've had my new car, the Sheriff (B word) has pulled me

over 2 more times. She told me my car was undesireable and every time she sees me on the road, she will pull me

over, and start looking for violations she can give me tickets on. I avoid that Sheriff (B word) as much as I

can. And then...
The trailer had a nail in the tire. Me and my girl went to QT to repair it. Went for a Quick Trip but ended up

in HELL. The Sheriff (B word) was there! We stalled around for an hour fixing that dumb tire waiting for her to

leave. But she didn't. She waited too. We left QT to go back home and she pulled me over...AGAIN!!! Asked for

my drivers license, insurance, & registration, and as I handed them to her she tells me to step out of the car.

She says your under arrest for driving with a suspended drivers license. She lets my girlfriend go, but made

her walk home imeditly so they could tow my car and trailer away. After my girlfriend was gone and the

sheriff's back up arrived, her commanding officer sent her away from the scene. I was released by the officer

because of a medical condition, but got a ticket for driving with a suspended license, my car and trailer were towed away, and I had to walk home.

After going back and forth(without my car or trailer for 2 weeks)getting rides from people, between the courts,

DMV, and the tow yard, cost me about $500.00 this time. And that was to get another drivers license, to get my

car out of impound and for gas money for who ever I had to bribe to give me a ride to fix all this bull crap.


To be continued.....

I would get a lawyer and sue the station for harassment. That's ridiculous.

I 2nd that.

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Originally Posted by trashman;

To be continued.....

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D-:
What a horrible story! I really hope things work out in your favor somehow. Nobody deserves that type of hell.

Wow!!!!!!!! I hope you can pull a happy ending out of this somehow. Being in such dire straights, might just lend you to making a decision to relocate and start fresh. best of luck to you on this whole mess.

I don't know the whole story and I am not one of those sue-happy nut bags, but just seeing this little bit of your side, it sounds like a harassment suit in the making. Not just direct costs, but thousands in insurance premium hikes and potentially lost income. That's one of many reasons, I record every dollar I make & spend and pay my taxes.

[/QUOTE] To be continued.....[/QUOTE]

Once again, I was pulled over, it was just 5 minutes ago, and it was in front of my house. The first words out of his mouth were " Aren't you still suspended?" Then says that his reason for pulling me over was because of no light on the license plate. I argued with him and said " no it wasn't, you pulled me over because you thought my license was suspended." He said no, and said "I ask everyone that I pull over if their license is suspended." My girl ("Gotta Girl") corrected him, and quoted him "no, you said " Aren't you still suspended?"" He let me go without a ticket, because he was such a nice (PRICK) cop.

To be continued....

I was recently stopped by the po po at a Dish Network place I got a hook up at for all the scrap satellites.

Well it was about 11p.m when I went up there to collect, their open usually till 12a.m and 7days a week.
After I had left and was about 2 miles down the road a cop saw me from way in the distance. I was going down hill to stop light where the road T. He was going straight though the T and saw me way up the hill coming down. He kept going and I turned in same direction he went. He must of pulled off where another cop was running radar on the side road because when I passed their were 2 cop cars on side of road. Just a 2 lane road. After I passed they immediately started to follow me and preceded to follow me for about 15 minutes.
I was perfectly fine and legal nothing to worry about, but I didn't feel like dealing with any pigs so I was on my way directly out of their jurisdiction, not 500ft from the line when they pulled me over for a license plate light. Only one of my two license plate lights was working.
I know why they pulled me over, because I was driving a spray bombed 1990 f150 at night in a industrial area.
They held me for over an hour. I had about eight old beat up dish network satellites and they were sweating it. Trying to call the guy that owned the place, wrote down a crap ton of info then let me go. They made me give them my cell phone number lol! I said call me if ya got some scrap you need gone.

To be continued.....[/QUOTE]




Well, went to court on Tuesday. Taking it to trial. Will update you all next month.


To be continued...

Case Dismissed on suspended license, but I didn't get my money back on getting car out of impound.