ASYAH, 18 September 2005 — A sharp rise in iron prices has led to a sharp increase in iron thefts.
The price of iron has risen from SR1,200 per ton to more than SR2,000 per ton. Now, thieves are targeting unguarded farm and maintenance equipment in the Asyah area, northeast of Buraidah, Al-Riyadh newspaper said in a recent report.
In the past, honest scrap iron collectors got discarded iron from roadsides and abandoned project sites.
Lately dishonest collectors wait for farm owners to leave and then “collect” whatever isn’t bolted down, unless they take the iron bolts, too. It’s a bad situation for the many honest Saudi iron-mongers who collect scrap iron and sell it to support their families.
“After my children come home from school, I take them out with me to the highway and collect whatever we can find, including cans travelers throw on the roadside,” said Abu Saleh, a military retiree who has collected scrap iron honestly for some time to augment his SR1,500 monthly pension. “We sell one kilo of cans for SR6, and it is later transported to the Eastern Province or Riyadh factories for recycling,” said Abu Saleh.
Gangs of thieves aren’t looking for SR6. They roam villages in the area in search of iron to steal. Some first try to buy the iron from farms, but if the owners refuse they steal back at night to steal the steel.
Thieves are now stealing cables, farm equipment and abandoned cars from the roadsides. Construction companies complain thieves are stealing the iron parts of equipment left on the job site.
Asyah is like a magnet for the iron thieves, and police there are making many arrests. Many of the suspects are overstayers, police said. In a recent case, an overstayer apparently first stole a truck and then used the vehicle to haul away stolen pipes and tractor tires.
“Part of the blame falls on farm owners for leaving their equipment in the open without guarding it,” said Hamoud Ayed, a farm owner who has lost SR70,000, including 3,000 meters of cable, over the last three years.
He puts most of the blame on police for failing to monitor the streets.
“Police are letting overstayers walk freely on the streets without any questioning,” Ayed said. “Police should put checkpoints at which they can stop them or at least limit their movements.”
