Dubious provenance
Here’s a question that I need answered: why do we allow companies that (obviously) deal in stolen goods to remain open? Some call them fences, if you’re trying to place the situation.
Going back to the Wild West, when rustling was a thing (still is, apparently), we had people with dodgy intentions. If someone came to my door and said they had several hundred steers, on the hoof, requiring a buyer, I’d have been curious. I mean, didn’t you have this figured out before saddling up and heading down the Chisholm trail?
Closer to the present, if someone showed up with a small fortune in copper tubing available, out in the back of the truck, in odd lengths, wouldn’t the buyer at the scrap yard wonder about where those sections of pipe (water pipe, mainly) came from? And if you had purchased too much material when building your third house this season, wouldn’t you go back to the building supply company? I am curious. Also, if a neighbour mentioned that all of his plumbing had disappeared recently. Suspiciously.
On the CBC, I spotted this photo:
If someone showed up at the scrap yard, wouldn’t the owner wonder how you had acquired all of this precious metal? Count them. One per vehicle. Hard to make anyone else believe that you happened to have some older cars parked in the yard (over and over again, as a plus).
Let’s face it, criminals have to be aided and abetted, in order to transfer materials of dubious provenance into cash. Perhaps the police might think this one through.
