metal

Other companies and utilities have complained of similar acts by thieves, who seek out copper or scrap metal in exposed wiring.

Rash armed himself with a metal pole and tried to keep the gunman, 62-year-old Richard Bradford, away from his four-legged friend, but prosecutors said Bradford shot Rash and left him to die underneath the bridge.

So, by this criterion, the metal has only recently reassumed its status as a store of value.

“I had so much metal inside me, I thought I wouldn’t need a burial when I died—the undertaker could just pop me in the recycling bin,” he quips in “Last Rites.”

Until now, silver was the only metal that was below its 1980 high, said Krauth, who is also editor of investment newsletter Silver Stock Investor.