ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Copper Theft Penalty

Its only been about 3 years since I entered this post and the lines that have been repaired are missing again. It looks like they used a bar/screwdriver to pry off the clamps holding the prodtective u chanel and took it as well. About 1 and 1/2 blocks worth of transformers (5) have had their grounds stollen.

It only seems plain to me that the only solution is to switch to another material, such as a copper bearing steel, a stainless steel, or a silver-colored copper alloy such as Monel for such uses.

Just came home from work and while it is dark out it now appears that over 4 blocks on my back lane have been hit by thieves. Out of those 4 blocks there are only 3 transformers that still have the copper grounds attached.

I think Wednesday I'll go for a walk down the backlane on the other side of the street and see if they have had "visitors" as well

Recyclers can no longer claim innocence: #4 solid bare copper is a TELL.

The cops / legislators need to update their game: cameras must record EVERY copper recycler.

Particularly ANY copper beyond #6... which is rarely retailed -- and never in quantity.

I think the problem is that there are intermediaries along the way that take the scrap, sort it and chip it before it gets to the legitimate recycler so it is hard to tell what the source of the copper really is. The thief may only be getting 40 cents on the dollar of what clean scrap draws and there is a layer or two of protection along the way.

At least I don't see full rolls of copper wire sitting around the scrap yards these days like I used to see.

Last I heard around here the yards are taking pics of the persons, no 'walk-in' trade, license plate of vehicle, and paying by CHECK.

That was from a local large yard.

That is why these thieves use an intermediary. Once the metal is chipped up and put in a drywall bucket, it is hard to prove where it came from so the guy who is getting his picture taken is fairly safe. They will be processing a lot of "legal" scrap too so the seller will have some kind of paper trail.
The middle man can still make a pretty good profit, simply cleaning up and sorting mixed scrap.

Did my morning walk and went down a few back lanes in the area, does not look good for the utility. Almost every transformer is missing 6-8 feet of wire from the ground rod going up the pole as high as somebody can reach.

I wonder if they were doing this at night or during the day for the number of blocks that they seem to have done.

I can't complain about copper theft because majority of my work is putting it back in. Good old Detroit, keepin me busy.

Is this a bad reason to support copper theft?

Now that is almost funny! Thinking along those lines, I guess that also should apply to the POCO guys!