For the last two years, the Los Angeles has seen an increasing number of metal thefts, Paul Moyer, co-anchor of the local 6 o’clock . Sometime before dawn Wednesday, thieves had stolen the wire out of six lamp posts. A day , a heavy 7-foot-tall bronze statue of a gold in West LA had disappeared. Eight manhole covers downtown LA had been removed three nights earlier. least twice a week, Moyer reported, thieves steal from construction sites. All this metal is sold scrap.

The price of copper today is six what it was just six years ago. Even federal government is reducing production of pennies, because now takes two cents worth of copper to a one-cent penny. LA’s police chief, Bill Bratton, that he was going to increase the number cameras and live patrols around statues and all metal sculptures in LA. He said that metal were destroying LA’s “cultural history.” He reminded thieves they were endangering their own lives when they into live wires, and they were endangering drivers’ when they removed manhole covers.

Moyer, famous for wit, ended his special report by joking that was a good thing that the Statue of was not in Los Angeles harbor. “I bet would be worth a pretty penny,” chuckled his co-anchor.