South Amboy Scrap Metal Company Used A Faulty Scale: Attorney General

SOUTH AMBOY, NJ — On Tuesday, the New Jersey Attorney General announced the state reached a $128,838 settlement with Beacon Metals, a scrap metal company with locations in Freehold and South Amboy.

In July of 2021, the state Office of Weights and Measures inspected Beacon Metals’ truck scale at its South Amboy location and found it produced short weight readings. OWM learned that a company had tried to service the scale in January of that year and recommended it be replaced because it was inaccurate.

But Beacon Metals did not install a new truck scale until two weeks after the state's July inspection. The Attorney General identified nearly 16,000 transactions in which consumers were shortchanged because of the faulty scale.

The state Attorney General said customers were "deliberately cheated out of their money" by a weights and measures scale that "Beacon Metals knew was not working correctly for six months."

"Through this settlement we are showing all metal buying businesses, whether scrap or precious, that their scales better be accurate, or we will catch them," said Attorney General Matt Platkin.