Gate Thievery: All the Rage?

A few weeks ago a reader told us that the iron gate outside her Crown Heights house had been stolen, and this weekend the Times has a piece on how the same crime happened recently in Clinton Hill. Gates were lifted from houses on Gates Avenue and Cambridge Place last month. "This is a crime that pops up from time to time in different areas of brownstone Brooklyn,” says Robert Perris, district manager of Community Board 2. “Usually people have never heard of it and don’t take steps to protect their gates until it happens on their own block.” Many believe the gates are either being stolen so they can be sold at scrap metal yards (scrap metal's value is up, apparently). Leslie Lewis, the community justice liaison for Marty Markowitz, floats this theory, however: “The gates themselves are worth far more than the metal. I suspect a contractor or someone else who needed replacement gates for a project just grabbed what they needed.” Anyone know of other neighborhoods that have been hit?
Thievery at the Gates [NY Times]
Gate Thief Strikes Twice in Broad Daylight [Brownstoner]

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These antique gates are definitely worth more as gates than as scrap metal. I bet they're worth a few hundred bucks each.

Posted by: Fast Freddy at July 21, 2008 9:38 AM

Especially the gate from that fine old iron fence (assuming it matched). What a beaut.

Posted by: dittoburg at July 21, 2008 10:08 AM

Unfortunately the high value as an antique gate wouldn't stop some low life from selling it as scrap for $5.

30 some odd years ago there was a whole landmarked cast iron building facade stolen and (presumably) sold for scrap.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at July 21, 2008 10:13 AM

During the bad old 80's, into the 90's, a lot of Bed Stuy's fences and other ironwork disappeared, and some of it was reported "found" in local, and Atlantic Ave salvage shops.

Back then, it was mostly desperate junkies, later on, when the pickings seemed to be not random, but purposeful, some in my old neighborhood suspected that the thieves were being directed as to what specific pieces to steal. No one could ever prove anything, but everyone made sure to secure their gates as much as possible.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 21, 2008 11:13 AM

“Usually people have never heard of it and don’t take steps to protect their gates until it happens on their own block.”

Do you protect a gate, by putting up a gate in front of it?

Posted by: bayridgegirl at July 21, 2008 11:50 AM

Happened to me a couple of years ago. The problem with the old gates is that you can just lift them off; they're not really attached, s a padlock of some kind should do the trick. That's what I had to do.

Posted by: bigmissfrenchie at July 21, 2008 2:28 PM

We sell antique and vintage garden gates from England, though looking at that picture it would be hard to replace that particular gate. We did bring down about ten when we first got them and always bring a couple to hold the tent down at Brooklyn Flea; however, there has been no interest from any of the Fleasters. If you are unfortunate enough to have yours stolen, then email us the size and we may be able to find a suitable replacement rather than spends almost or more than a thousand dollars to have it fabricated. Ours sell for about $14.00 per square foot. Fred from Silver Fox.

Posted by: Iknow at July 21, 2008 8:51 PM

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July 21, 2008

Gate Thievery: All the Rage?

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