Man busted in city-wide manhole cover thefts
(source: NYPost)
The man behind the theft of manhole covers has been uncovered.
Andrew Modica, 46, was arrested yesterday in connection with the numerous stolen manhole covers across the city, law enforcement sources told The Post this morning.
Cops pulled Modica over in a stolen pickup truck near his home on 67th Street and 21st Avenue in Brooklyn after they tracked him down through a license plate and parking summons, sources said.
Modica has been charged with criminal possession of stolen property and criminal impersonation.
Modica admitted to some of the manhole thefts from the streets across Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx, but claimed there were others he did not commit, sources said.
He said he was selling the 320-pound, cast-iron lids to scrap metal yards for between 12 1/2 to 15 cents per pound in order to feed his drug habit.
Modica said he uses crack, cocaine and heroin, sources said.
The covers measure up to 32 inches across and cost Con Ed about $200 to replace, Con Ed spokesman Allan Drury said last week.
Stealing them creates a hazard to motorists and pedestrians. Con Ed says it tries to replace covers right away, although sometimes, the holes are temporarily covered with metal plates.
Scrap-metal prices peaked in the summer of 2008, but then plunged in the wake of the financial crisis, said Bryan Berry of the Web site MetalPrices.com.
Since then, prices have been rising steadily, Berry said.
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The above is what the MSM is claiming as the explanation. We know better.
– The Flat Earth Society, to make scale-models of the globe.
– The Men in Black, to plug wormholes that predatory little green men would otherwise be crawling thru.
– British Petroleum, to keep handy as plugs for the next time they drill in the Gulf.