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Officials who appear in the photo from left to right: Tony Ranieri, Spalding County Sheriff’s Office; Scott Ballard, District Attorney Griffin Judicial Circuit; Sheriff Larry Waller, Lamar County Sheriff’s Office; Judge Dewitt Simonton, Spalding County Probate Court; Jan Hunt, Spalding County Probate Court, Sheriff John Cary Bittick, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Gene Pope, Butts County Sheriff’s Office; Sheriff Wendell Beam, Spalding County Sheriff’s Office; Sheriff Jimmy Thomas, Pike County Sheriff’s Office; Danielle McRae, Upson County Probate Court, Major Dan Kilgore, Upson County Sheriff’s Office; Captain Leslie Baines-Holmes, Lamar County Sheriff’s Office; Dickey Carreker, Milner Police Department; Richard Milam, District Attorney, Towaliga Judicial Circuit; Captain William Hosley, Upson County Sheriff’s Office; and Major Brad White, Lamar County Sheriff’s Office.
Churches, homebuilders, retail establishments and countless other victims of metal theft—help is on the way.
All the Sheriffs, District Attorneys and Probate Judges for Lamar, Butts, Monroe, Spalding, Pike, Upson and Fayette Counties have fashioned a plan to thwart metal thieves. Called “Operation Scrapbuster”, the plan uses existing laws to catch the thieves. It involves four administrative initiatives.
First, an existing law requiring scrap dealers to register with the Probate Court will be vigorously enforced.
Second, dealers are required to have written authorization for their entry onto private property to collect the materials.
Third, law enforcement will write citation for violation of laws requiring that loads be tied down and covered.
Finally, failure to comply with laws that require markers on loads that overhang more than four feet will be cited.
Operation Scrapbuster creates a seven county task force which will observe the gates of the scrapyards, stop each scrap load and investigate if the load is authorized and permitted.
Stiff fines and possible jail time awaits those who violate the administrative laws. Thorough investigation and prosecution of provable thefts will follow.
Saturated patrols, neighborhood watch, prosecution of scrap dealers who buy stolen materials, and all the other ways of apprehending thieves will continue. Those who legally gather scrap materials need only to comply with the Probate Court permit requirement and have written authorization to have been on the private property to gather the materials.
Prosecution of theft of scrap is difficult because of the inability to identify the specific items. The theft crimes plague every jurisdiction and this new approach will allow legal operators to continue their business. Only those who are operating illegally need to beware.
The goal of Operation Scrapbuster is to eliminate the profit for those who steal copper and other metals and thereby protect property owners from the costly vandalism that plague so many of them.
Thank you to the Barnesville Dispatch contributing to this article.