Highway storm grates vanish

You figure the thief couldn’t go far carrying stolen 200-pound cast-iron storm grates. You also figure he doesn’t have a degree in economics.

“All I can say is: Times must be tough,” said Georgia Department of Transportation spokesman Mark McKinnon, “to steal something that weighs that much that is worth about $8.”

Yet, somebody —- investigators believe he is a black male in his 50s or 60s —- has lifted and heisted about 100 storm grates from Atlanta expressways to resell them as scrap metal for about 4 cents a pound.

The GDOT first noticed the grates gone last October, along I-285 and on I-75, I-85 and I-20 inside the Perimeter. Usually, the crook left a piece of cardboard or plywood over the open hole.

“We think he did that to disguise the fact the grate was stolen, not because he was worried about somebody falling in the hole,” said William Green, the DOT’s lead investigator on the case.

Investigators got a description of the suspect March 17 when a GDOT driver of a HERO truck saw a person messing with a grate on the side of a ramp leading from I-75 to Metropolitan Parkway.

The suspect was driving a late ’90s orange Ford 150 pickup truck and wearing an orange vest. The HERO driver blew his horn, thinking the suspect was another GDOT worker. When the HERO driver doubled back, the man was gone.

Investigators have staked out locations but don’t have the staff to cover the hundreds of miles of interstates in metro Atlanta, and the thief’s movements are erratic.

“He’s hit Sandy Springs, and he’s hit Forest Park,” said Green. “They’re completely at opposite sides of town.”

So far, Atlanta hasn’t noticed an inordinate number of manhole covers missing this year, said Janet Ward, spokeswoman for the Department of Watershed Management. “In fact, we’ve seen a drop.”

Investigators scoured scrap metal dealers within about a 100-mile radius of the city and posted alerts on the Metro Atlanta Metal Task Force Web site, but have come up empty.

Frank Goulding, vice president of marketing for Newell Recycling in East Point, said the heavy metal heister hasn’t shown up at his place. If he did, the company would have alerted the cops.

Goulding said the suspect must be especially hard up because, like real estate, the bottom has fallen out of the recycled manhole cover and sewer grate market since last summer.

“We’ve paid as much as 10 cents a pound for recycled cast iron,” said Goulding. Now, he said, “scrap iron is 3 or 4 cents a pound.”

Unless, of course, you’re the DOT in the market for new replacement grates, which cost about $170 apiece.