As copper prices soared, a man in his 40s who stole hundreds of nameplates attached to bridges and sold them to a scrap dealer was caught by police. The bridge nameplates, which contain information such as the bridge name and design load, are known to be removable using tools.
On the 11th, Jangheung Police Station in South Jeolla Province booked without detention a man in his 40s, identified only by the surname A, on suspicion of theft. A is suspected of stealing about 850 bridge nameplates attached to bridges while traveling around South Jeolla and North Jeolla for about a month from December last year. The number of affected bridges was found to be 254.
According to the police investigation, A checked in advance whether closed-circuit (CC)TV was installed, then chose blind spots to commit the crimes. A visited a scrap dealer in Gwangju and, saying "the local government put them out for replacement," sold the stolen nameplates and pocketed about 40 million won, was found.
Police also booked six people, including employees of the scrap dealer that bought the nameplates, on suspicion of receiving stolen goods. In particular, police said that considering the cost of restoring the plates to their original state, the damage could reach 600 million won.
Police plan to hand the case over to prosecutors as soon as the investigation is completed.
Meanwhile, copper prices surged to a record high in January this year on the London Metal Exchange (LME), hitting about $14,000 per ton (about 20.5 million won).