Wiring at Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. facilities has been targeted so often that county police had to resort to a chopper and K-9 units to try to catch the alleged thieves red or, if you will, copper-handed, as a story in The Capital recounted this week.

Why? Because the price of copper in recent years has soared from about 60 cents a pound to $3 and shows no sign of slowing. (In fact, it costs about 1.7 cents to make a penny these days). The cost of other precious metals such as aluminum, platinum and brass also are going through the roof.

The prospect of quick, easy money has not been lost on opportunistic thieves, some of whom are cash-hungry drug addicts. So, you ask, where do they sell this stuff? Who will buy 15,500 feet of copper wire without question from someone with no visible means of support?

Apparently, there are enough buyers to make it profitable for sellers - and enough to generate bills in the last session of the General Assembly to create a scrap-metal registry that would have variously required dealers to write down the names, descriptions and even vehicle numbers of people showing up with precious metal to sell.

With Glen Burnie Sen. Ed DeGrange Jr. leading the way, mostly everyone - even the industry - agreed that Maryland should join 20 other states in requiring such a registry.

But something not so funny happened on the way to forum. As the bill was winding its way through committees in both houses, the role of Prince George's County state Sen. Nathaniel Exum began raising eyebrows.

It seemed Mr. Exum, who serves on the Senate Finance Committee and was helping craft the bill, also works for one of the state's biggest scrap dealers, according to published reports. Before sending the bill to the full Senate, his committee voted to exempt auto dismantling companies and recyclers - including Mr. Exum's employer.

Once that curious piece of information surfaced, some senators vowed to put the auto dealers back in the bill. The exemption was removed from the House bill, and a conference committee agreed it needed to be removed from the Senate version. But because of an error (one of the conference delegates was misidentified), the bill had to be reprinted as time ran out on the last day of the session.

One could point a finger at Mr. Exum for failing to recuse himself from the measure early on, and for senators on the committee for approving the amendment without knowing their colleague had a personal stake.

But, regardless of who you blame, a clear way to help stem the tide of scrap-metal thefts failed because of an ethical hiccup and a clerical error. Either way it's a sad commentary.

For his part, Mr. DeGrange vows to bring the bill back next session, but that gives thieves another year to sell whatever precious metal they steal to whoever will take it without question. And guess who gets to pay for that?