US recycling plant robbery could be ‘inside job’

United States – Greg Brown, owner of US-based trailer manufacturer Benlee and of three scrap yards, has experienced every businessman’s worst nightmare: becoming the victim of a brutal armed robbery while at work. ‘Their gun jammed; if that had not happened, I would have been a dead man,’ he tells Recycling International one week after the traumatic event.

Brown was opening for business on August 15 at his scrap metal facility in Raleigh, North Carolina, when two armed and masked men forced their way into the entrance of the facility. The robbers pushed him into a back office where the company safe is located. A surveillance video (www.bit.ly/BenleeRobbery) broadcast by local TV station ABC 11 and on the internet shows how the men kicked, punched and threw him to the floor and pointed a semi-automatic pistol at his head while forcing him to disarm the security system.

′I was in Manhattan for 9/11; I was just a few miles away,′ Brown has told ABC 11. ′I was in China during Tiananmen Square and had to be evacuated, so I′ve seen a few things – but nothing as bad as this. I just thought I was dead. They just hit me and kicked me. I′m covering my eyes because he kept screaming ′′don′t look at me!′′′ The criminals eventually resorted to stealing Brown′s wallet and cell phone before walking away from the scene.

′When they charged the front door, they knew that I had to shut that alarm off,′ Brown points out. ′I also noticed they were wearing my company uniforms. This was an inside job of some type.′

The experience has already led the business owner to change the way he stores his money. ′I thought I had a key, but I didn′t have a key and frankly, effective now, we have a sign up that my people can no longer have access to this,′ he says. ′It′s going to be an armoured car service.′

*In its March 2014 issue, Recycling International published a feature on Benlee, which manufactures trailers for the scrap industry, and on Brown′s scrap yards in North Carolina.

For more information, visit: www.benlee.com