By: Danny Jacobs

Here’s a sentence from a press release issued by Baltimore County on Friday announcing that crime in the county was down in 2008 compared to 2007:

Most impressively, of the eight serious crime categories, seven have seen a decrease. Rape has decreased by 2 percent, robbery by 3.4 percent, aggravated assault by 10.7 percent, burglary by 9.8 percent, motor vehicle theft by 13.6 percent, and arson by 4.3 percent.

The release noted in an earlier paragraph homicide was down 16.7 percent, for those keeping count. But that still leaves one category that saw an increase and is not mentioned anywhere in the release.

According to police department data, that category is theft, which increased 5.7 percent between 2007 and 2008. Leading the surge is the theft of precious metals, specifically copper and catalytic converters, police spokesman Bill Toohey said. With copper, thieves typically enter homes under construction and take wiring; with catalytic converters, they swipe them right from cars. Catalytic converter thefts in the county, in fact, have increased from 50 in 2006 to 459 last year, Toohey said.

In both instances, the stolen goods are sold to scrap metal dealers, said Toohey. The Maryland Senate passed a bill last month that would require junk dealers and scrap metal processors to keep more detailed records of who they are buying goods from to help police catch the theives, but the companion bill in the House of Delegates did not make it out of committee.

Click here for the county’s crime summary. Overall, crime decreased 1.2 percent in 2008 compared to 2007.