A new report suggests incidents of metal theft may be on the decline.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau says claims for metal thefts dropped 26 percent last year, compared to 2011. During that time, there were more than 41,000 insurance claims – 97% of them for copper theft.
The agency notes copper prices dropped between February, 2011 and December 2013 from $4.49 a pound to $3.67 a pound.
The most claims came from Ohio, followed by Texas and California. Arizona came in 18 th, with 824 claims during that time. While the report only deals with the number of insurance claims, the agency says the latest data are encouraging. The top five metro areas for generating metal theft claims are New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Dallas. The report covers claims for copper, brass, bronze and aluminum.
