54-2707. UNLAWFUL VIOLATIONS AND LIABILITY. (1) It is a misdemeanor for:

(a) Any person to deliberately remove, alter, or obliterate any manufacturer’s make, model, or serial number, personal identification number, or identifying marks engraved or etched upon an item of nonferrous metal property or commercial metal property in order to deceive a scrap metal business;

(b) Any person to knowingly make, cause, or allow to be made any false entry or misstatement of any material matter in any book, record, or writing required to be kept under this chapter;

(c) Any person to sign the declaration required under this chapter knowing that the nonferrous metal property subject to the transaction is stolen;

(d) Any scrap metal business to knowingly possess commercial metal property that was not lawfully purchased or received under the requirements of this chapter;

(e) Any scrap metal business to engage in a series of transactions valued at less than twenty dollars ($20.00) with the same seller at the same location within a twenty-four (24) hour period of time for the purposes of avoiding the requirements of this chapter; or

(f) Any person to intentionally violate the provisions of section 54-2703, Idaho Code.

(2) Any person, other than a scrap metal business, who has pled guilty to or been found guilty of violating the provisions of this section for a second time within five (5) years is guilty of a felony.

(3) A person who knowingly and intentionally takes copper or other nonferrous metals from an electrical substation without authorization of the utility, or who knowingly and intentionally takes copper or other nonferrous metals from a utility or communications services provider, thereby causing damage to the facilities of a utility or communications services provider, or interfering with the ability of a utility or communications services provider to provide service, is guilty of a felony.

(4) (a) A public or private owner of metal property is not civilly liable to a person who is injured during the theft or attempted theft of metal property.

(b) A public or private owner of metal property is not civilly liable to a person for injuries caused by a dangerous condition created as a result of the theft or attempted theft of the owner’s metal property when the owner did not know, and could not have reasonably known, of the dangerous condition.

This section does not create or impose a duty of care upon an owner of metal property that would not otherwise exist under common law.

History:

[54-2707, added 2009, ch. 152, sec. 2, p. 444; am. 2013, ch. 286, sec. 3, p. 740; am. 2014, ch. 321, sec. 6, p. 798.]