This article was found online just recently, Copper/Metal theft is hitting demo contr.actors hard, but these theft 's happen often as well, more so in the US then Canada, where I believe this article originated.

The fine line between salvager and scavenger
Growing trade in legally rescued antique building fixtures has spawned a black market in stripped materials
CHRISTOPHER POLLON

CTV.ca News Staff

December 10, 2007 at 5:18 AM EST

In late 2003, John Atkin walked into an abandoned old house in Strathcona, carrying the tools required to salvage rare ornamental door trim for reuse in his own home renovation.

Hearing loud crashing noises upstairs, Mr. Atkin followed the sound and came face to face with a man armed with a crowbar, who was smashing through valuable mouldings to remove $3 pulleys from an old sash window.

"These are mine," said the man before resuming.

The two occupants of the derelict house represent the good and bad sides of Vancouver's growing trade in salvaged building parts. On one hand, there was Mr. Atkin, a Vancouver historian and heritage advocate with permission to enter, and on the other, a man willing to risk a breaking-and-entering charge to profit from a quick smash and grab.

Four years later, the market for salvaged building fixtures and ornamentation continues to grow in Greater Vancouver: Jack's New and Used Building Supplies of Burnaby has seen sales increase every year for the past decade. Eric Cohen, owner of Vancouver Architectural Antiques on Main Street, has become a North American authority on the sale and restoration of old lighting fixtures. And flooring salvaged from Lower Mainland homes built before the Second World War is so valuable that demolition and salvage companies like Lichfield and Company of Port Coquitlam market and sell entire flooring lines of reclaimed old-growth wood.

Mr. Atkin, who is co-founder and past president of Heritage Vancouver (a non-profit promoting heritage preservation in Vancouver), said a black market for architectural salvage has emerged in tandem with the legitimate business, where salvagers typically break into abandoned and soon-to-be demolished buildings and strip everything of value.

Constable Tim Fanning of the Vancouver Police confirms that a trade in stolen architectural salvage exists in Vancouver and that the problem is very difficult to prevent or quantify.

"There are a lot of scavengers out there, many looking for copper, but the other side is to steal things like doors, windows and flooring," he said. "A lot of that stuff is hard to trace unless you watch somebody do it, get a licence number and follow them to where they sell it."

The incentive to strip old buildings, legally or otherwise, is revealed by the value of such commodities as original Victorian door hinges, which Mr. Atkin said can fetch up to $150 each on eBay. For reconditioned light fixtures and chandeliers, the prices listed on antique dealer websites in Vancouver today can surpass $100,000.

There are many other elements of older Vancouver homes that are attractive targets to any salvager: Solid red cedar panel doors are highly prized, including decorative wooden trim and black and white porcelain-enameled doorknobs.

Old stained glass and unusually shaped old windows can be very valuable, as is original wide-plank flooring, which was historically milled from 1,000-year-old Douglas fir.

Local companies such as Lichfield and Jack's often buy salvage rights to structures facing demolition with the intention of reselling the wood flooring. However, savvy thieves sometimes beat the professionals to it.

That occurred in Vancouver's Chinatown in 2001, when thieves broke into the then-vacant Wing Sang Building (built in 1889). The crooks did not touch a single thing in the place except the fir floors - so valuable was the wood to them, they even lifted the sub-floor.

"This would have been beautiful, tight-grained wood in pieces up to 40 feet long without a single knot," Mr. Atkin said. "You just can't get that today, for love or money."

Equally rare and prized are old lighting fixtures, which in the hands of experienced collectors like Mr. Cohen, take on even greater value after his company has restored the pieces.

Mr. Cohen's showroom is a trove of unique salvaged pieces, including remnants of Vancouver's past. There's original stained glass from the Lotus Hotel beer parlour on Abbott Street, a gigantic chandelier from Victoria's Empress Hotel (recovered from a Fraser Valley barn, now for sale for $125,000), and the ceiling lights and "every single door" from the Hotel Georgia, bought at an auction in March.

At any given time, Mr. Cohen said, he has between 40 and 50 "pickers" working throughout North America, looking for unique pieces, mostly outside of Greater Vancouver.

"Compared to many older cities, there's not a lot of great architectural buildings in Vancouver," he said. "And the great buildings [that are here] aren't ripped down any more, so very little comes out of this area."

Mr. Cohen dismisses the black market in architectural salvage as the work of small-time drug addicts.

"There's very few people who go around trying to sell, and when they do, it's usually low-value stuff," he said. "I can tell 99 times out of 100 if something is stolen, and it's usually because the [seller] doesn't have a clue what he's trying to sell."

Police Constable Fanning said that addicts are involved, although they are not the only ones.

"There's two basic mentalities at work ... the guys that steal [flooring] will have a truck, and they'll also do some honest salvaging, but if they see an opportunity, they will take it before they're allowed to or invited to," he said. "Then there's the kind of person that would break into anyone's home to steal a computer, and that's a different deal altogether, that's a drug habit that has to be fed daily."

Special to The Globe and Mail

***How to ensure you're buying legal antiques

A scan of eBay's "Antiques" category on Nov. 22 revealed Vancouver-based sellers offering stained glass and century-old wrought iron gates. Architectural salvage listings ranged from antique skeleton keys for 99 cents to a pair of antique swinging saloon doors with leaded bevelled-glass windows for just under $5,000 (U.S.).

The question is, how does an online shopper differentiate between legal and illegally sourced goods?

Erin Sufrin, an eBay spokeswoman, said there are two ways eBay protects its users from unscrupulous sellers: Their trust and safety team consists of over 1,000 staff who continually search for sellers and items that violate the company user policy. The team is also a point of contact for external police agencies, including Vancouver's anti-fencing unit, which routinely scours eBay to locate goods reported stolen.

There is also a self-policing infrastructure that allows potential buyers to query sellers prior to making a sale, and a feature that lets anyone view comments from past customers of any seller.

"Make sure you ask a lot of questions, ask to see better pictures, and if you want to see proof of ownership, ask for it," Ms. Sufrin said.

Christopher Pollon