Security authorities on Sunday nabbed a thief in Jeddah after a busy day stealing steel on a Jeddah street. In violation of flagrant behavior, the thief was seen at midday with his bypass lopper cutting through steel fences and power cables and loading them onto his pickup truck. Passengers and motorists said they thought the man was working for the maintenance department of the municipality. But a police patrol suspected him. The police had not been notified of any maintenance work of the day going on. The man was arrested and asked for proper ID, which he failed to show. A search of the truck turned up a large quantity of steel and copper cables. When questioned, the man said he found the cables lying on the ground, thinking it was trash. But he couldn't, however, deny that he cut the steel fences on his truck. But soon the man admitted the theft. He was then taken to the police station for further investigation, said a Jeddah police spokesman. With unprecedented rise in the prices of steel in the Kingdom, thieves may have found better deals stealing steel from streets to sell it to recycling companies. It is not only Jeddah, however. Coupled with the theft of copper cables, Dammam and Riyadh also have become the latest target in a nationwide epidemic of manhole-cover larceny. - Okaz __
