Scrap scavengers pose wily challenge on base

Spent shell casings from firing practice litter the desert during an operation by Military Police to stop trespassers from stealing metal ordnance on the grounds of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., on April 4.


Scrap scavengers pose wily challenge on base
By Chelsea J. Carter - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday May 13, 2008 20:27:35 EDT

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. — Hundreds of Marines were conducting a combat training mission in the Mojave Desert when an air patrol spotted something kicking up dust: A civilian pickup truck speeding across the barren landscape.

Behind the wheel was a suspected scrap metal thief who had been combing the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center for spent brass shell casings. His intrusion onto the base was the 12th time in six months that scavengers had inadvertently halted combat exercises.

Bombing ranges have become prime hunting grounds for so-called “scrappers,” who are motivated by soaring commodity prices to take greater risks in their quest for brass, copper and aluminum. The scavenging causes headaches for the military, which cannot patrol every inch of the remote bases where spent ammunition, shrapnel and unexploded ordnance are easy to find.

“This is not just some petty crime. This is dangerous business,” said Andy Chatelin, director of range management at Twentynine Palms, which at 932 square miles is the world’s largest Marine Corps base.

Illegal scavenging of military munitions has long been an issue at military bases. But as metal prices have climbed in the past two years, scavengers have become more numerous, more audacious and more sophisticated.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_scrapscavengers_051308/

Must they be wasteful? Would it be so hard to pick up after themselves?