Come up with a new excuse

There's a persistent problem with groups of Yahoos getting in a truck and driving up to a mine/train station/garage and grabbing wire/metal brakes/engines and going down to the friendly local scrap metal dealer and turning it into cash.

Here are a tip for those of you defending one of these Yahoos when I've been assigned to prosecute the case:

Please tell him that unless the stuff was picked up during business hours, while workers were on site, I am not going to believe that his buddy told him that Buddy had permission to take that $8,000 air pump meant to keep people alive in the mine and go to the scrap yard to get $500 for it. Even if Buddy said such a thing, I don't believe anyone is stupid enough to think that it was kosher when they took it at 5 a.m. using flashlights.

It's the same excuse every single time. Tell them to come up with something more creative. It probably won't help much, but at least a claim that space aliens made him do it would keep the rest of us entertained.