As flat-panel TVs and computer screens take over American homes and offices, they're rapidly displacing millions of old glass picture tubes and monitors destined for the scrap heap.

Thieves are trying to cash in on the rising prices paid by recyclers for scrap metal.

Dozens of local homeless and more than 100 volunteers from McClymonds, Fremont and Berkeley high schools turned out Monday to Fitzgerald Park, a patch of grass and trees near the intersection of 34th and Peralta streets. The occasion: a Labor Day picnic, complete with hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and sodas, organized by the founder of Mikey's Meals.

Crooks stealing scrap metal hoping to cash in -- police say it's a huge problem in Central Florida, and at least one local lawmaker is pushing an idea to make it harder for thieves to profit from it.

An inmate guard pocketed hundreds of dollars after he told several inmates during a Macon-Bibb Parks and Recreation work detail to load scrap metal and transport it to a Recycling company, police say.