LEWISTON – Norman Jalbert has an answer for the thieves who ripped off his stockpile of scrap metal this summer: rock salt loaded in the shot gun he keeps at hand.

“Those sons of bitches. If I catch ’em, they’re gonna hurt,” he said.

Jalbert, who runs Dana’s Garage on Sabattus Street, has been struck twice this summer by thieves. In June, 80 catalytic converters were taken from the junk yard he maintains as a side business to the garage. Wednesday morning, he discovered about 20 aluminum wheels were gone.

“That’s money right out of my pocket,” he said. He estimated the wheels would have brought him about $300 as scrap. The catalytic converters, which contain platinum and baser metals, $4,000.

Jalbert’s not alone.

Lewiston police have noticed an increase in stolen metal parts, fueled by a soaring commodities market that makes recycling scrap attractive.

“It’s been a problem,” said Lt. Mike McGonagle, who ticks off stolen metallic items like he’s reading a shopping list at a hardware store.

Copper wire. Aluminum siding. Gas grills. Copper pipes. All have been reported stolen.

The spate of thefts locally mirror a national trend. Metal prices, especially copper, have more than doubled over the past year. Copper surged to $3.39 a pound in the second quarter of this year versus the $1.53 it was selling for a year ago. New copper was trading over the $3.50 mark Wednesday.

That means local metal recyclers like Pat Murphy of Maine Metal Recycling are paying about $2 per pound for scrap copper, twice what he paid a year ago.

“The prices have caused us to be really busy,” he said, “almost to the point of chaos.”

And it’s provided incentive for thieves – some audacious, some just stupid – to swipe metal products, strip them down and turn them in for scrap.

Developer Travis Soule had a tenant at one of his apartment buildings call to say there was no heat or hot water, only to discover someone had broken into the basement and stripped out all the copper pipes.

“It was probably only about $100 worth of scrap, but it was thousands for me to repair,” said Soule.

Last week he was showing his Island Point property to business associates when he surprised some men checking out a pile of metal in one of the mill buildings.

“They said they were lost,” he said, chuckling. They bolted from the scene but not before Soule got the license plate of the vehicle they were in and passed it on to police.

In May, thieves tried to strip copper from live wires at a CMP substation in Farmington, an act that cut power to 2,100 customers and welded the thieves’ cutters to the cables. Last week, a Rumford man reported 500 pounds of copper and brass stolen, metal that he’d been stockpiling for years in his garage.

McGonagle said police are pursuing leads on the local metal thefts, including Soule’s. One suspect they’ve been monitoring has received $58,000 for scrap metal since January 2005, with no discernible source for it.

He said the thieves might not know that the police have good working relationships with local metal recyclers, who report suspicious activity.

Referring to suspicious clients, Murphy, of Maine Metal Recycling, said, “We’ve banned a core group of them. We’re very aggressive about it. When we’ve got a hunch, we let police know.”

Murphy said business has been booming as people try to cash in on the record prices for metals. But that doesn’t mean he necessarily is seeing big profits.

As the middleman, he pays for scrap metal that he, in turn, sells to refineries and other processors, who then sell the refined metal to end users. As the demand for metals continues to increase – stoked primarily by China’s booming economy – he has to pay more for scrap and sell it at a higher price; his margin doesn’t really increase but his cost of doing business does. And since metal is a commodity, it’s subject to the highs and lows of a global market.

“If people don’t want to buy at a certain point, they will wait and the price will go down,” he said. “If they do, the price will go up.”

He believes copper has reached its peak and is “hovering” before a downturn. Other metals such as aluminum, zinc and nickel continue modest gains, according to market reports.

While Murphy’s business is in the thick of the metal frenzy, it’s not immune from theft either. Tuesday morning one of his workers spotted tire tracks around the gate of the business and other evidence that someone had tried to break in.

“We’re like a giant cookie jar for thieves,” he said.

Soule said he’s had to reinforce locks, hire extra security and increase patrols around his properties to watch for potential heists.

“Costs that, unfortunately, my tenants end up bearing,” he said.

Jalbert hopes police catch whoever’s been stealing from him. But if they don’t, he’s not going to simply sit by and wring his hands.

“You work your ass off and someone just goes ahead and steals it,” he said. “I say my prayers to the good Lord. Eventually, someone will get ’em.”