Three soccer goals missing from Sugar Hollow Park

BRISTOL, Va. – For an enterprising thief, it might take five minutes and two tools to chop a 24-by-8-foot aluminum soccer goal into portable bits; then, under the cover of darkness, haul it out of the back-end of a city park on foot and sell it as scrap metal for a few hundred bucks.

That, suspects Kevin Dye, director of parks and recreation, was the fate of three soccer goals that went missing from Sugar Hollow Park over the long winter.

The robber – or robbers – targeted only the aluminum goals that, according to Dye, retail for about $1,600 a pair.

“There’s nothing worse than a thief,” Dye said, confessing that he’s pretty burned up about the missing goals. “The real shame is that they’re taking directly from our community. It’s not like we use these goals to make a profit. All they’re doing is hurting some kids’ feelings.”

Dye said this is the first time anything has been stolen from the park.

Authorities said Wednesday that the goals are likely destined for the scrap metal incinerator. Over the past several months, the price for aluminum has climbed steadily. On Wednesday, aluminum was selling for 50 cents a pound, a 25 percent increase from a month ago, said Ronald Gross, manager of Bristol Scrap Metal.

“As the price goes up, so does the theft,” said Mark Sourbeer, regional business manager for Wise Recycling.

In February 2009, aluminum was selling for about 20 cents a pound, one of the lowest prices Sourbeer can recall. The junk business, he said, rises and falls with the economy. When there’s no demand for new cars and refrigerators and file cabinets, there’s no demand for the metal to make them.

“I’ve paid as low as 12 cents [a pound], and as much as 72 cents [a pound],” Sourbeer said of aluminum. “You can judge the economy by the scrap industry. When the economy is doing well, we lag behind it about six to 12 months. When it takes a downward turn, it takes awhile for us to feel that. We’re kind of like the tail of a dog in that way.”

Aluminum is the second most-lucrative metal to sell, Gross said. On Wednesday, copper was going for $2.80 a pound.

Thieves have been known to gut abandoned buildings and homes under construction for the copper utility wires inside the walls, Bristol Virginia Police Capt. Maynard Ratcliff said.

Sourbeer said they can do upwards of $100,000 in damage.

The police department has investigated catalytic converters stolen right out from under people’s cars, Ratcliff said. Officers have done stake-outs at scrap yards and caught five-man metal-thievery crime rings.

Once, maybe 10 years ago, Ratcliff said, a man climbed up a power pole off Bob Morrison Boulevard with the intention of robbing a transformer of its copper wiring. He was electrocuted and died.

It has become such a nuisance over the years, both Tennessee and Virginia adopted laws requiring scrap metal recyclers to keep notes on their sellers – from photo identification to tag numbers to fingerprints.

Gross said they often interrogate suspect sellers about where and how they acquired the metals. It’s not in their best interest to buy stolen goods, he said.

Once, several years ago, a nervous-looking man came to sell an aluminum loading dock. They gave him $50. Awhile later, another man arrived looking for a stolen loading dock. Police got involved.

“He got his loading dock back,” Gross said. “But we lost that money.”

Gross said it was hard to speculate how much Sugar Hollow’s soccer goals would be worth without weighing them.

But Dye suggested it was about more than money. The gates to the soccer field have been closed all winter, he said. It would have taken premeditation and a bit of ingenuity to get the goals out of the park.

“That’s why they’re thieves, they’re too lazy to work,” he grumbled. “So they have to get creative.”

cgalofaro@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2531