Cops thwart would-be fence bandit

Earlier this summer, we talked about how rising metal prices are leading to more scrap metal theft and how those pesky metal thieves would steal anything they could get their hands on. And it turns out that was more true than we knew: Early yesterday morning, police arrested a man trying to steal an iron fence from the front yard of a Midtown home.

It happened at about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday near where Elgin becomes Westheimer; there's no word on exactly what went down, but we imagine the erstwhile thief was having some trouble prying the wrought-iron fence out of the ground. It does show a remarkable amount of dedication, though, trying to steal a fence — or perhaps it's chutzpah. Or maybe just stupidity. In any case, we can't help but wonder: If the guy had gotten away with stealing the fence, would he have sold it himself or would he have gone through a fence fence?

This story, by the way, reminded us of a favorite fence-related website (yes, we do have one). It hasn't been updated in some time, but it's still a good way to pass some of that time you should be spending working.