ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Lights catch eye of copper thieves

MX... There's still some of those in existance... For example, the old lights along Broadway in northern Santa Ana.. Hmmm

Same here. If we (or my one neighbors) have an appliance that the garbage men won't take, I find him. I usually catch the guy at the corner convienience store. The local trash men won't take refridgerators or air conditioners, even w/o freon, for example. Go talk to him, and his Ford F250 is at my house in about 3 minutes. That A/C, fridge, stove, dryer, washer, water heater, whatever is on the back of his truck. I've never seen him with big copper before. If the appliance is too small for him (say a stand fan), I snap the cord off and gut it for whatever I think I can use (motors, switches, etc.) Why snap the cord? Because the local druggies always snap them off for crack money. (For cryin' out loud! There ain't that much copper in an 18AWG TV cord!)

On the other hand, whenever there's a trailer around here to be demolished, there's an older couple in a falling-in-two Ford Ranger, running through with a hammer and a pair of wire cutters (seriously!)

Ian A.

[This message has been edited by Theelectrikid (edited 09-30-2006).]

After bringing up the topic of copper theft, my neigbour tells me he saw a guy rolling a 6 foot roll of wire down the street at 2am! He said he didn't do anything or call anyone. "Now that you mention it, he was probably stealing it" he said. Duh?