A tip from a viewer led us to investigate a crime going on all over the county. Thieves looking to cash in with scrap metal.

Deputies call them scrappers or thieves who will go to any length to steal any metal they can get their hands on. But Eyewitness News found out thieves are getting more brazen stealing some very large items.

William Hill worked in the oilfields for 40 years to build up his family ranch. It's located just west of Taft, complete with various farm equipment and two trailers they were about to renovate. Hill says that was until thieves made their way onto his property to steal anything they could get their hands on. "They tore me up pretty good, tore the gate down and everything else," says Hill.

Hill's daughter and son-in law showed us the damage. They say thieves overturned this trailer stealing its axles, and used a rope in the barn to lift some heavy farm pieces onto a truck. They also say the scrappers broke through this trailer to steal its refrigerator. And most damaging says Hill's daughter is the fact that they stole the ranch's generator cutting off all water and electricity. The total damage was about 20-thousand dollars.

"My dad is 74 years old, how does he protect his property? If it weren't for neighbors and family, you know helping him, " said Hill's daughter, Kathryn Plunkett. Deputies recovered some of the stolen items including the generator after Plunkett recognized them sitting in the back of a man's truck in Taft. The man was arrested and admitted he and others had stolen from the ranch four days in a row.

But deputies say recovering the metal is not always this easy. And that's exactly the problem says Plunkett. Deputies say there is no law that prevents recycling centers from buying stolen metal. But recycling centers are required to keep detailed information from the seller including their id information and their license plate number. We visited one shop in Taft who says scrappers always come by his shop.

"We turn them away, do not buy it from them," said Dean Rowden, the owner of J & D Recycling in Taft. There is pending legislation that would require recycling centers to only buy by mailing a check to the person after the sale. They currently give cash on the spot. And it would require them to keep specific identifying information such as a thumbprint of the seller.