Robert Okuda, his mother and father unceremoniously turn away suspicious-looking characters who show up every day at their family's recycling business with plenty of copper pipes, copper wire and other copper parts — but no identification and no reasonable explanation of how they got the copper.

"We don't know if they're guilty or innocent but they sure act nervous or tongue-tied, so we tell them, 'Hit the road,' " Okuda said. "With half a century in business, we don't need to depend on that kind of business to make a living."

The Okudas' no-nonsense policy comes at a price.

Copper represents more than half of the revenue for Okuda Metal Inc., which was founded in the 1950s when Okuda's grandfather drove his truck around O'ahu's plantations with a tiny scale and cash in his pocket.

Plantation workers lined up to sell him pots and pans and copper they found in the sugar cane and pineapple fields, giving birth to a company that now ships containers of used copper to places like China.

Today, copper is the most valuable metal O'ahu's small metal recycling industry deals with, and the competition to buy copper for Asian and Mainland recycling markets remains "fierce," Okuda said.

So turning down suspicious copper sellers not only costs Okuda Metal valuable merchandise, but also brings the wrath of the people the family sends away.

Many of them start yelling obscenities. Or the would-be sellers stand along the edge of their Kahai Street business calling them out to fight.

Sometimes the Okudas arrive at work to find the windows of their company truck smashed in.

Honolulu patrol officers have been to Okuda Metal Inc. as recently as two weeks ago — as undercover officers pretending to sell stolen copper.

"They were the only ones who regularly chased us away," said Maj. Kurt Kendro, who oversaw operation "Full Copper Jacket," which was organized by six Kalihi beat officers who saw rising copper theft cases in their district. "The Okudas would rather let the copper walk away."

WORLDWIDE DEMAND

The worldwide demand for copper has thieves stealing copper pipes, wires and other copper products from homes, businesses, schools and construction yards all over the country, including a stretch of H-1 Freeway near Kapolei that remains dark at night because of the high replacement costs.

As long as copper can be sold at $1.60 per pound on O'ahu, thieves will continue to steal it anywhere they can find it, Kendro said.

But their only source of income remains O'ahu's six metal recyclers, Kendro said, down from seven last week when Aiea Recycling on Dillingham Boulevard shuttered its operations after an employee was arrested on a felony charge during operation "Full Copper Jacket."

The recyclers are the only ones who sort and package old copper and then ship it to Asia and the Mainland, where it's smelted down and recycled, Kendro said.

So they've became the focus of Kalihi officers who have most of O'ahu's recycling operations in their district.

At the same time, the recyclers find themselves at the center of 16 bills introduced in the Legislature this session that would, among other things, require recyclers to more vigorously check sellers' identifications, fingerprint sellers, photograph their copper, store the copper they buy for 30 days on their property, defer copper payments for 30 days, require sellers to produce notarized letters about the copper's authenticity and institute other procedures that recyclers say will burden their operations, drive up costs and deter legitimate sellers.

"Each of the bills has real problems," said James Nutter, president of Island Recycling Inc. "We don't need new legislation. They just need to enforce the rules that are already on the books, like requiring a valid ID."

Current law requires scrap recyclers to check — but not record — the identity of anyone trying to sell material such as copper. They do have to get a signed statement from the seller — usually on the receipt — saying the seller has the right to sell the copper.

Recyclers who violate the statutes face a misdemeanor charge, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Copper thieves face misdemeanor charges if the market value is under $300; felony charges if it exceeds $300. Most of the time, Kendro said, officers make misdemeanor copper arrests.

OFF-DUTY OFFICER

On Feb. 18, a Kalihi patrol sergeant working an off-duty job on Sand Island Access Road saw a 51-year-old man pull up to CM Recycling Co., reach into his trunk and pull out 104 pounds of brand new industrial-grade copper.

The copper had been stolen from Siu's Electric Corp. on Alakawa Street, Kendro said.

When the man went into CM Recycling, he did not have proper identification, Kendro said. So a CM employee took him outside, where they found a homeless man who did have ID, Kendro said.

"The employee brings the homeless guy back in and they have the homeless guy say that it's his copper, which is a false statement," Kendro said. "The law says they need to have a statement on their receipt that (the seller) had the lawful right to sell the copper. But the homeless guy doesn't even know how to read, so he couldn't possibly have made the statement.

"But the owner paid out the money for the copper and completed the sale. So that was a case of a false statement by the employee and the owner of CM."

Police issued a misdemeanor citation Wednesday to the owner for detaining stolen property, Kendro said. The man who showed up with the copper was arrested on unrelated charges.

"The sergeant saw the whole thing unfold and put the case together," Kendro said. "It was a keen bit of police work."

An employee of CM Recycling contacted Friday declined to be quoted.

LAWS TOO SOFT

The Legislature may stiffen the law to make it harder for copper thieves to sell their contraband, but lawmakers don't want to place too much of a burden on recyclers.

State Sen. Clayton Hee, D-23rd, (Kane'ohe, Kahuku), has heard testimony in the Legislature and sympathizes with many of the criticisms from recyclers, such as the intrusion of fingerprinting and the lack of space to store copper for up to a month.

Because copper theft cases accounted for more than $760,000 in thefts last year on O'ahu, Hee believes the Legislature needs to address the issue.

"Making laws is easy," Hee said. "Making them practical takes a little more skill. I'm not sure what form we'll end up with, but we can say unequivocally that the penalties for theft will be steeper and the recyclers who take the metal will play a larger role in assisting in enforcement. There will be standards imposed on people who receive copper."

Cities in Georgia and Texas last year passed ordinances requiring metal recyclers to track transactions or require sellers to sign documents stating they are the lawful owners of the material being sold.

Kendro has researched copper sale legislation in Virginia, Colorado and Illinois and said recent efforts by Honolulu police and the bills in Hawai'i's legislature follow national trends.

"This problem is not unique to Hawai'i," Kendro said. "It's across the nation. It's only catching up to us this year because of the significant price of copper."

The HPD particularly supports SB 1332 in the Legislature, which makes copper theft a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, requires recyclers to photograph the copper they buy and withhold copper payments for 30 days — while requiring sellers to provide a notarized statement about the authenticity of the copper being sold.

Another bill supported by the HPD — SB 1229 — requires scrap dealers to make thumbprints of anyone selling copper.

Steve Hirsch of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a Washington, D.C.-based trade organization representing the recycling industry, has seen similar legislation attempted around the country.

Most of the bills create new burdens for recyclers, Hirsch said. Some of them — like fingerprinting customers and photographing potential copper evidence — turn businesses into agents of law enforcement, Hirsch said.

"There are a number of things suggested around the country that we don't feel work as well or end up placing our members into law enforcement roles," Hirsch said. "That's not our training — or our role or our focus."

WORKING TOGETHER

Some of the easiest and most effective approaches instead get police and recyclers working together, he said, by setting up an alert network to notify recyclers of recently stolen copper so they can contact police if someone brings in the stolen copper.

Nutter, of Island Recycling, suggested that exact idea last year when deputy attorney generals went through recyclers' records as the copper problem began escalating.

"There are only seven of us," Nutter said week before Aiea Recycling closed its doors. "All the police have to do is notify us whenever there may be any suspicious copper out there looking to be sold. Instead, they sent undercover officers into our business."

On Feb. 22, police arrested a 15-year Island Recycling employee, Toufaasulu Pulou, 58, of Honokai Hale, on a misdemeanor charge as part of operation "Full Copper Jacket."

Nutter has hired an attorney to represent Pulou and said he has yet to get a description of the accusations against Pulou.

But he does know that the case has hurt his company's reputation.

"Long-time customers are asking why we're buying stolen property," Nutter said. "We're not. It's company policy to follow the law exactly."

Island Recycling calls itself Hawai'i's largest recycling company and purchases cardboard, newspaper, scrap iron, aluminum, stainless steel, glass bottles and plastics for recycling. Copper purchases represent only two-tenths of 1 percent of the volume of material purchased at Island Recycling's Dillingham location, Nutter said.

"Why would we risk our reputation for such a little amount?" Nutter asked.

In the meantime, Nutter said, Pulou's "in shell shock. She's a 58-year-old lady who adopted four kids and she was arrested and thrown in jail for two hours and wasn't told why. Why did she have to be arrested for something like not following the proper procedures — if that's what it was?"

Pulou is scheduled to appear in District Court on March 15.

BILLS CHALLENGED

Jim Banigan, general manager of Schnitzer Steel Hawaii Corp., formerly Hawaii Metal Recycling, does not buy copper.

But Banigan plans to testify throughout the session because "even though we don't accept copper, we're part of the recycling community and we need to be part of the solution."

Most of the proposals simply don't make sense from a business perspective, Banigan said, such as requiring recyclers to keep tons of copper on their property for as long as a month.

"It can't be done," Banigan said. "It's impractical."

He has been testifying alongside Okuda of Okuda Metal, who vows to challenge the bills "as long as it takes."

Okuda last week showed off his family's dusty, 10,000-square-foot lot in Kalihi Kai, filled with pallets of copper pipes, wiring and tubing stacked on top of one another. Each pallet weighs one to two tons.

Standing next to a tower of pallets waiting to be shipped out, Okuda asked a simple question of the Legislature: "Where are we going to keep copper for 30 days? We can't do it."

Instead, Okuda said, recyclers need to be more diligent about properly checking sellers' identifications. And police should focus on enforcing the identification requirements that are already part of Hawai'i law, he said.

"As long as there's a market for stolen copper, thieves will continue to steal," Okuda said. "But we don't want anyone with dirty copper coming here. They're just not welcome."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.