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ST. LOUIS (AP) - The thieves weren't interested in the collection boxes or the computer equipment at St. Stephen's Lutheran Church. They were after the copper on the roof and along the sides.
Wielding pickaxes and crowbars, they pried up the gutters and the flashing, leaving a $12,000 mess that the old church — with no insurance at the time — is still struggling to clean up.
Stealing metal and selling it to scrap dealers has long been a way to make money, but with metal prices running higher than usual, the problem has gotten especially bad, and now lawmakers in Illinois and at least a dozen other states are trying to stop some of the plundering of vacant houses, businesses, construction sites, churches, even graveyards.
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