“As all of the Investigators know, Scrapyard Search is a very powerful and useful tool. This year I had a very interesting case where a subject was breaking into cell tower sites and then accessing the locked metal cabinets that contained the cell tower site battery back-ups. Each carrier has its own locked cabinet containing their own back-up batteries. This subject would access the cabinets and disconnect and take the batteries getting between 6-18 batteries at each site. (Battery 200 lbs. and $800.00 each) Also leaving the cell tower site with no back-up or 911, if power is lost. The subject would then go to an area scrapyard with the batteries, posing as a cell company employee, with forged paperwork and sell the batteries as scrap. This subject was entering cell sites in several states and taking and scrapping batteries. This subject did this in my jurisdiction several times and later exited the state. A month later, he re-entered the state and started scrapping the back-up batteries again and that’s when I caught him at a local scrapyard with stolen batteries and later he was charged with the thefts. This would not have been accomplished without the scrapyard search and these cell companies would still have their cell towers at risk. Thanks, LeadsOnline.”
Det. J. Desizlets
North Little Rock Police Department
Arkansas