Police: Douglasville men arrested for stealing iron

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga.,None — Police say two Douglasville men stole 1,000 pounds of iron from a city building.

Investigators suspect David Rogers and Benjamin Clinton stripped the metal from the ceiling of the old mill on Bankhead Highway.

"In particular they were stealing metal beams, pipes and some wiring," Detective Mac Abercrombie said.

The police took both men to jail on Jan. 19.

Abercrombie told Channel 2's Erica Byfield an officer arrested the men a few blocks away from Northwest Georgia Recycling.

"Not only were we able to tie this one, we were able to tie it back to several," he said.

Detectives ran the men's names through the Business Watch International, or B.W.I., program to connect them to six other possible thefts.

By law, recyclers in Georgia are not required to run extensive searches on customers who recycle items like iron and copper.

"We have a system here where the recycler has agreed to implement a higher level of reporting, which is more consistent with pawn and gold reporting,'" Abercrombie said.

The owner of Northwest Georgia Recycling told Byfield he hopes this deters criminals from bringing stolen material to his business.

"Recycling is a responsible act and in every industry there is a criminal element to it, and we are just trying to eliminate it from our business," Robert Cruz said.

Rogers and Clinton are each charged with three counts of burglary, possession of burglary tools and theft by deception.