Police reports from two neighbor towns show that some person or persons is out there stealing scrap metal.

In a down economy, people find any way they can to make a little extra, and the problem isn't just local or regional, it's international.

Scrap metal thieves struck 2,000 Northeast Ohio homes this past year, according to the ABC Newsnet 5 website in Cleveland. The report says that one group of criminals were almost killed when they attempted to take down a large copper power line along a state route that was very close to a live electric power line carrying 23,000 volts.

The Times in London reports that the problem of scrap-metal thievery is so widespread that the government has proposed an amendment to the Scrap Dealers Act, so that dealers could no longer pay cash for scrap.

MyFox Orlando reports that scrap metal thievery is "a huge problem in Central Florida, and at least one local lawmaker is pushing an idea to make it harder for thieves to profit from it."

Scrap metal is sold everywhere, from eBay to local businesses

In Geneva, someone took an unknown amount of scrap metal from a storage container of a business in the 1100 block of Commerce Drive around 8:45 p.m. Feb. 13, reports said.

An employee exiting from the southwest side of the business told police he saw a vehicle pulling a white, open-style trailer leaving the access drive and saw pieces of scrap metal on the ground and inside the trailer.

The report said the scrap metal was valued at less than $500.

Batavia Patch reports that just two days earlier in Batavia, about 2,800 lbs. of scrap metal was stolen by an unknown offender at Excel Manufacturing, 900 Paramount Pkwy. The stolen property was valued at an estimated $300, according to Batavia Police.