MONTREAL, May 6, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A tractor-trailer carrying 1 ton of copper east of Montreal was hijacked at a highway rest stop and later was recovered empty, police said.
An unidentified driver told him two French-speaking men broke into his cab Sunday night and told him they wanted the copper and said he wouldn't be hurt if he cooperated, The Gazette newspaper reported. They put the driver in a minivan drove and eventually left him in an industrial park unharmed, police said.
The trailer was found empty Monday morning.
The price of raw copper has more than doubled since 2004 and was selling Monday around $4.25 a pound, meaning the heist would be valued around $8,500, the report said.
Montreal police Constable Olivier Lapointe with the price of copper rising, thieves have begun targeting construction sites in the city for wiring and pipes. Police didn't say what form the stolen truckload of copper was in, the newspaper said.
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