When 175 feet of AT&T's twisted copper telephone line disappeared last month from Austin Street in North Memphis, the thieves traveled to Arkansas to try and sell their stolen scrap metal.

Their strategy apparently didn't work. A 51-year-old Memphis man, Willie B. Houston, landed in Shelby County Jail on Thursday charged with felony theft, vandalism and destruction or interference with utility lines.

Houston was held on $25,000 bond and a warrant has been issued for the arrest of another suspect. Both men were seen in a car that arrived at a Marion, Ark., scrap metal dealer carrying more than 190 pounds of copper telephone wire burned to remove its insulation.

A Memphis city ordinance opposed by the scrap metal industry in courts but finally embraced in late 2009 has helped make Memphis a less inviting place to sell stolen metals, said Paul Morris, an attorney who represented theft victims in the fight for the ordinance.

"What we've heard is that the problem still exists, but that's not to say that the ordinance didn't work," said Morris, now president of the Center City Commission. "It is not as bad as it would be if we didn't have the ordinance."

The price of American scrap metals -- driven by high demand in faster-growing economies overseas -- is a more important factor driving thefts, Morris said.

Local scrap metal dealers said copper currently earns a minimum of $3 a pound. In December 2008, during the global financial crisis, the price had fallen as low as $1.10 per pound, according to an industry group, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, in Washington.

Meanwhile, states including Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas have stiffened industry regulations.

Mississippi and Arkansas direct scrap metal dealers statewide to supply a Dallas-based, privately run "nationwide investigations system" called LeadsOnline with detailed information about suppliers of metal that law enforcement agencies can tap.

The industry's institute offers a free alert system, Scrap Theft Alert, that allows major theft victims like telephone companies to post alerts sent to recyclers within 100 miles. The system also provides information for law enforcement agencies that register, said Gary Bush, national law enforcement liaison for the institute.

Still, AT&T reports that several times in recent months thieves have risked injury and electric shock in Memphis to climb poles and steal copper cable.

The theft reported June 9 in the 1300 block of Austin cut a line serving 200 customers and cost more than $10,000 to repair, according to court documents.

The telephone company asked anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at (901) 528-CASH (2274) or AT&T Asset Protection toll-free at (800) 807-4205.

-- Kevin McKenzie: (901) 529-2348