Aug. 20 on The Story: A metal recycling facility in Portland says its obligated to enforce strict rules before paying to take in scrap metal. That's because there's a lucrative illegal trade in things like stolen copper wire. Communications company CenturyLink, for instance, reports that Oregon and Washington lead the nation in copper wire theft, with the company reporting that incidents in Oregon so far this year are nearly double what they were all last year. Thieves strip the rubber coating from their cables and cut free the valuable copper to be re-sold — resulting in outages ranging from small to massive that require repair. Watch more The Story videos: http://bit.ly/watchTheStory Follow The Story on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheStoryKGW Follow The Story on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thestorykgw