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#68908 08/27/06 02:28 AM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 717
M
Member
Our local papers both ran a story this week about how lots of sections of the freeways are going dark. There is a camera system set up at all the freeway overpasses and what they saw was sort of astounding. The thieves wore orange safety gear, hardhats, etc, drove trucks that look similar to city maintenance vehicles with an amber stobe on top, and did the dirty work in broad daylight. Still have not been caught or Identified by the detectives.

#68909 08/27/06 02:55 AM
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 247
T
Member
A few years ago, one of the sound companies in the region had one of their trucks stolen out of their lot.. fully loaded with gear and cable.

the thieves got caught when they tried to recycle the cable.. the recycling company got suspicious of all this nice clean connectorized SO and SJO cable, in nice furniture grade road cases with the company logo on them..

#68910 08/27/06 07:37 AM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
P
Member
It's been going on for years. I remember in the late 1970s sitting on the train outside Harpenden for about an hour once (a main line a little way north of London) as the railway was having signaling troubles.

Apparently somebody had slipped up to the junction one night with cutters and made off with a large quantity of the signaling cables.

#68911 08/29/06 05:44 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,429
L
LK Offline
Member
Jersey guys, copper termites, are targeting the small stuff now!
Copper wiring reported taken

SOUTH AMBOY: Some $2,000 worth of copper wiring was reported stolen from a Route 35 South construction site, police said.

The incident occurred early Friday morning.

Police said six spools of copper wire — two red, two black, two blue — were taken from a building on the site.

Staff report

#68912 08/29/06 06:14 PM
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 100
J
JJM Offline
Member
There is a legal term referred to as "attractive nuisance". This has been the basis for suing property owners where kids have drowned in pools that didn't fences around them, etc. I wonder how long it will be before a POCO gets sued because all that copper in a substation could be construed as an "attractive nuisance" for a copper thief.

Heck, crazier things have happened... it's the 1st "anniversary" of Hurricane Katrina, and look at how all the looting and mayhem was "justified" because they we're "hungry" or some other excuse... like they could really eat those plazma TV's and DVD players (couldn't even use them, since there was no power). So if people are "hungry" or "oppressed" enough, copper theft can easily be justified -- even if the rest of us have to sit in the dark.

Joe

#68913 08/29/06 09:58 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 3,682
Likes: 3
Administrator
Member
(submitted by KCstudent)

Pole end of stolen conductors:

[Linked Image]

Bus entrance end of stolen conductors:

[Linked Image]

Picture of the whole run:

[Linked Image]

#68914 08/30/06 08:31 AM
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 4
K
Junior Member
The above pictures are an addendum to my post on this thread: https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/007355.html

I'm still shaking my head over the gall of the guy who cut our feeders out...


Thanks to Bill for posting the pix for me!

#68915 08/30/06 10:42 AM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 3,682
Likes: 3
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OOPs!

I posted pix in wrong Copper Theft thread. They've now also been posted in the other thread.

Bill

#68916 08/30/06 01:03 PM
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 156
R
rad74ss Offline OP
Member
http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0806/356827.html

Another ten minutes and the police would have had a double whammy.

#68917 08/30/06 01:38 PM
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 745
M
Member
Some of them are just bound to end this way...
about 15 years ago, we were renovating a theater and our EC had just replaced the service conductors in the back of the building (a run of about 50 feet), then called for inpection and had the POCO energize them (due to the problems with copper theft back then). Later on that same night, the POCO was called out for a "no lights" call in the building adjacent to the theater. When they arrived, they found part of our new service conductors laying on the ground, along with the carcass of a thief, sporting nasty third degree burns to both arms and legs.

The thefts slowed down for a little while after the story went to the newspaper. This brain trust had been known all too well by local law enforcement.

Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 08-30-2006).]

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 08-30-2006).]

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