One man has been arrested and police are looking for another in the theft of 21 storm drain covers from the City of Vicksburg.

Eddie Sizer Jr., 34, 304 Ashcraft Circle, Edwards, was arrested about 4:02 p.m. Wednesday by police officers and Warren County deputies at Worldwide Alloyed, 610 U.S. 80, where he was selling a load of scrap metal, Vicksburg police Capt. Bobby Stewart said.

Sizer, who faces city, county and state charges because the sale of sewer and manhole covers is against state law, was being held without bond in the Warren County Jail awaiting initial appearances today in Warren County Justice Court and Municipal Court Friday.

Stewart said Sizer is accused of selling seven of the stolen storm drain covers for scrap at Vicksburg Recycling, 4766 N. Washington St., and 14 at Worldwide Alloyed, which is in the county. He said 12 of the storm drain covers were recovered Wednesday. The remaining nine had already been cut at Worldwide Alloyed, he said.

Sizer will face city and county charges of receiving stolen property over the sale of the covers.

He said Sizer was identified from sales records at both businesses.

Mississippi’s Scrap Metal Law requires scrap dealers to get identification from a person selling scrap, photograph the person and get information about the vehicle in which the person is traveling.

After Sizer appeared at Worldwide Alloyed Wednesday, Stewart said, employees recognized him and notified police.

The storm drain covers were stolen over three months from poorly lighted and sparsely populated areas. Four were stolen in the Monroe and Commerce streets area and three in the Baldwin Ferry and Court Street area.

Sewer Department superintendent Willie McCroy said the city’s drain covers are engraved with “Sewer Department” on their undersides and some are marked with green paint. He said the steel covers are valued at about $200 each, and the city has so far spent $4,000 replacing them.

He said one cover, dumped in the Walmart parking lot, was stolen from Washington and Levee streets.

At Lee and Oak streets, where a cover was taken Tuesday, a man almost fell into an open storm drain, McCroy said. He said the drains are 2 to 12 feet deep.

“We believe more than one person was involved in taking these covers,” McCroy said, “because they are about 5 feet long and weigh 150 to 175 pounds. It takes two people to lift them.”

Stewart said the covers were found during a random check of materials at the salvage yards.

At both scrap yards, he said, the covers were found at the bottom of a load of scrap metal that had recently been delivered. In each case, he said, the covers were mixed with other scrap metal, and recycling center employees making a visual inspection of the loads did not see them.

Mississippi Secretary of State spokesman Pamela Weaver said an amendment to the scrap metal law restricting the sale of manhole and storm drain covers went into effect on July 1.