Seattle Police Arrest Scrap Metal Recycler

One of the owners of Everbright International, based in Seattle, has been arrested for purchasing stolen scrap metal.

According to Seattle Police, the company first came to the attention of law enforcement officials this past September when it was discovered the company was purchasing metal without the proper license. That violation was remedied when the company obtained the proper license to operation.

However, Seattle Police noted that the company’s reputation grew as a place where stolen metal could be taken.

To combat this, during the first few months of this year detectives for the Seattle Police Department undertook an operation over the next several months where they delivered metals that was clearly not accessible by the general public.

In February, an undercover operation commenced to determine whether or not Everbright was operating in a lawful manner. The bait: property donated by perennial metal theft victims WSDOT, QWEST, and Puget Sound Energy.

Last month, an undercover officer traveled to Everbright with ‘metal’: two PELCO and one COHU cameras and scrap wire. The cameras are unique to WSDOT and are not available to the general public. The UC offered the property to an Everbright employee for the day’s going rate for metal. Cameras for cash, no questions asked.

Later the same day, the UC returned with 3 COHU WSDOT traffic cameras, a PELCO camera and several hundred feet of cable. The cameras were clearly marked with serial numbers and WSDOT tags. On this occasion, Everbright’s owner assisted the officer with the transaction without asking any questions.

On March 14th, the same UC returned to Everbright with a new spool of general cable and a WSDOT signal box. Both had State of Washington Property Redistribution tags clearly affixed. The UC noticed that the owner was careful to stash the spool of cable behind some large boxes. The owner never asked questions about where the material came from.

After several more deliveries, detectives arrested the owner’s wife. She is expected to face charges of trafficking in stolen property. While Everbright’s owner is presently in China, Seattle detectives hope to charge him as well.

The operations of Everbright International have ceased.