I just read on the Pipe Organ Forum (yes there is one) where some jackaninnies stole pipes from a church not knowing they were mostly lead and partially tin.

The person posting said the state of Ohio is very close to regulating scrap metal dealers to the point of requiring identification, and possibly thumbprints, of anyone selling scrap metal to the dealers.

Electricians, Plumbers, Organists unite!

Seems that copper theives haven't found the wire (that used to serve an old now abandoned fire alarm system) hanging from telephone poles in a NJ town (I didn't want to say which town)

There are still a lot of power distribution lines that are copper around here, easily identified by their greenish coat of corrosion. It's tempting to point them out to some of the thieves, would take care of the problem real quick.

Had my own copper thief or wannabe thief anyway. I live in a rural area, my driveway is 600 ft long down a hill. There are 2 houses on the driveway, one at the top of hill where I live and one at the bottom that I've been fixing up for rent. I have an open shed on the driveway that used to house farm equipment(it still does but we aren't farming any more) where I'd throw the occasional brass or copper scrap that I'd get. Been saving it for years. Had painters down at the lower house. They did an ok job but I thought they could have done better so they had to come back and touch up some spots. I was out of town working when they came back but my wife was home. One of the painters came up to see if what they did fixed the problem. apparently he knocked on the door but my wife didn't hear him. On the way back down to the job site he must have spied the copper scrap and started throwing it out of the shed( I didn't know this at the time). My dog heard it and started going nuts. My wife looks out the door and sees nothing, goes out on the deck where you can see the shed and hears pipe or whatever clanging. She finally yells out, "hey what are you doing", the painter comes out and says"just looking at the tractor" and then says"do you own this". My wife says "we own it all". He says"I was just checking to see if what we did was ok" My wife calls me and I say tell him his boss knows what has to be done and if he is satisfied get the heck out. I call the GC on the job and tell him to get over and find out whats going on. Thankfully he comes right over(within minutes) and tells the 2 painters to get out( he looks in the vehicle, doesn't see anything). I still have one more day out of town. I get home the next day and see the copper out in the grass and freak out. I called the sheriff, who listened to my story and I doubt was going to come over until I mentioned the painters name, before I even had his name out of my mouth he said "I'll be right over". I showed him where the copper was and where the painter had thrown it. He said there is nothing I can do as he didn't get away with it, there are no walls or anything on my shed so it wasn't breaking and entering. he said he'd talk to him but the kid will deny it. When the painters left the would be thief wasn't driving, he was a passenger so that means the other person(a girl) was in on it also. The painters boss still hasn't called me. The GC sent my wife flowers:) at least he has a clue. Actually the GC did great work, too bad his sub had to leave a sour taste in my mouth.
I took all my scrap to the junkyard yesterday:) 513 bucks

we had a copper thief on a job I was on in Orlando. the guy was on a bicycle and paused at the boss' truck, peering in at the tempting semi precious metal. our dear crazy Texan (Ive never met a sane Texan) stepped out just in time to see the guy hoisting a full roll of #4 bare out of the truck. When said Texan hollered "Put that down and git!"
the thief stood his ground and said "This is MINE - you STOLE it from ME!!" when he saw that Tex wasn't going to falter for that crap he dropped the copper and pedaled away - our pet Texan nearly caught him on foot. (don't know what would have come after catching him anyway)

When I take scrap to the dealer I am required to supply my drivers license the first time I showed up and they take my car license plate number down everytime.

These aren't bad people. They just need to find better use for their time. Like this.
Joe

http://www.chilloutzone.de/files/pl...UMllSOOAvIF//P_LxP92A42lCHCeeWCejXnHAS/c

We have similar problems increasing badly in NZ over the last year with the high Cu prices.
Earth cables have been cut away from OH poles going to earth banks.
Sectionalisers earths have been cut hence no protection was available on certain feeders.
We have substation fences cut and earth cables removed from ABS switches and OCB's.

These people playing with their lives unless they have access to HV gloves.

Genuine scrapmerchants ask for driver license id and take note of registration plates of your car.

Bolt cutters and saba saws have been used to cut through the conduit. marks visible on the poles.
One day they will cut a live 11 or 33 kV feeder cable and we will find an arm or other bodypart somewhere.

Every week there is a police report on copper theft in our area.

POLICE BLOTTER
Police Briefs for 8/07/07
Home News Tribune Online 08/7/07

Two arrested in burglaries

EDISON: Two North Brunswick residents were arrested Friday and charged with burglary, police said.

While on patrol on Route 1 at about 3:25 a.m., patrolman Michael Mintch Warner saw a gray Volkswagen Passat pull into the parking lot of ADK Electric, 868 Route 1 north, which was closed, said Lt. Joseph Shannon.

The officer, whose suspicion was aroused, decided to park his patrol car a few businesses away and investigate on foot, he said.

Police arrested Derek S. Dunfee, 34, and Sebastian Gallegos, 25, inside the fenced in facility as they were attempting to steal two spools of wire, valued at $250, from the business, Shannon said.

The pair were charged with burglary.

Dunfee's bail was set at $35,000 with no 10 percent for two separate burglaries in the township. A check also revealed two outstanding contempt-of-court warrants in Manville and Hillsborough, totaling $2,500, officials said.

Gallegos' bail was set at $10,000 with no option of paying 10 percent, Shannon said. He was remanded to Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick and released after posting bail, officials said.

Staff report

Today I replaced a clients feeder and ground wires that were stolen. Not only did they take the wire they ripped out all the basement drywall and sawzalled out all the plimbing.

Our old downstairs-window A/C was sitting in our shed awaiting scrap (freon removed, etc.) Our neighbors' 17 year-old daughter (with two-year old in tow) and her addict-boyfriend pull up in their pickup full of scrap garbage.

Shed was locked, A/C was inside the shed.

Come morning, lock's broken and on the ground, A/C is gone.

We called the police, two half-asleep officers show up, take two notes and leave. Neighbor's pull in later with our A/C in the back of their truck! Call the police again, they never show up.

Time to move to Middletown Twp.

Ian A.

I moved out of my old house and have been using it as storage for a bunch of stuff that will eventually find a home in the garage at the new house.

Well, appparantly scrappers have been watching the house - they came in and took a bunch of old tools I'd gotten from a friend, and a bunch of wire - several partial rolls of 12 & 14 and (this hurts) a spool of #6 that I paid $74 for six years ago.

For those who have lost copper, its good to know that sometimes you can have a win:

Shock burns cable thief beyond recognition

From correspondents in Berlin
October 09, 2007 01:27am
Article from: Reuters

A THIEF in Germany was charred beyond recognition by a 10,000 volt electric shock when he tried to steal a live copper cable.

Police in the western city of Duisburg found the 32-year-old man's blackened remains by a set of cable cutters and pile of non-live cables he had already stolen.

Only because one of his hands survived incineration were officers able to identify the man as a German of Kazakh origin.

“His fingerprints were already logged on police files,” a local police spokesman said.

“The force of the shock was so great that the hand was severed from his body.”

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22555158-23109,00.html

Only because one of his hands survived incineration were officers able to identify the man as a German of Kazakh origin.

I was wondering what Borat was up to these days. He must've thought the gypsy tears would protect him from the HV. Oh well, should've stuck with his very best potassium.
Joe

My best friend is an operations manager for the local power company. He told me that thieves are even starting to steal aluminum cable, in fact he mentioned that someone used a backhoe to pull about 1,000 feet of 4/0 triplex out of conduit at a construction site. It's not just copper anymore.

I read an article in the newspaper recently about the extremes that recyclers are having to go through to curb metal theft. They require a photo ID, they take a photo of the seller and they copy the license plate number of their vehicle. One thief came into a recycler with seven brand-new 2,500' reels of #10 copper THHN. In an effort to stall him, the told him that they couldn't take it on the reels, so they asked him to take it outside and remove it from them. This gave them enough time to contact the police who arrived and promptly arrested the guy and his accomplice. It turns out that the wire was stolen from a job site where my son is working.

I went to sell scrap metal today. They took down my driver's and truck license numbers before I even entered the building. When getting paid, the cashier asked if I had been there before. I said yes, maybe two years ago. He said, oh, you have a different truck now. I didn't see them taking down the vehicle license last time I was there, but they had a record of it.

BTW: #1 insulated copper= $1.25/lb
#2 copper = $2.20
shiny copper = $2.40
AL. extrusions = $ .60
AL sheet = $ .50
yellow plb. brass = $1.40


steve

We have a guy here who dumpster dives for a living. (they are building next door). He seemed very happy to haul away my old garage door. At 60c a lb I guess I see why but that is a hard way to make a living. He did look funny going up the road with a 16' garage door in a little asian pickup. I would be surprised if the cops didn't stop him.

They steal it off radio towers where I live at and from the abandoned railroad power lines. I worked on a school addition/ renovation in Jackson Ohio one time and before I got to the job, my foreman told me that the wire we had was stolen along with the plumbers pipe one time and the police seen 2 guys in a field burning a pretty high pile of copper wire that came from our job.

Stolen copper trail leads to Olympics

By Mark Buttler
March 13, 2008 02:27am
Article from: Herald Sun, Melbourne, Australia

A MOUNTAIN of copper ripped off from train lines, power companies and Telstra is being used to build stadiums for the Beijing Olympics, police suspect.

A Melbourne crime gang is believed to have raked in $20 million on the Chinese black market.

The group, allegedly headed by a wealthy woman, has been making up to $150 a kilogram after paying thieves as little as a few dollars to steal copper from public utilities.

The metal, mostly wiring, was then shipped to companies in China where a construction boom and the huge Olympic development has driven prices through the roof.

Tonnes of copper were required for big projects such as the new Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing.

Tens of thousands of Melbourne commuters have been left stranded by copper wire thieves who have stolen hundreds of metres of cabling.

Thieves risk their lives to steal the copper wiring. Some of the train line cabling carries up to 1500 volts.

Transit police have made three major copper seizures in recent weeks.

Eight days ago, they confiscated 5.7 tonnes from a major Melbourne metal merchant.

Two days earlier, police found four tonnes in a shipping container at Laverton ready for export.

A search of an eastern suburbs second-hand dealing store last week uncovered another four tonnes.

Investigators are sifting through a complex paper trail, including shipping documents, uncovered by the Melbourne probe.

Interpreters will be used to analyse documents and investigate Chinese receivers of the stolen copper.

It is believed police are investigating the Melbourne crime group's activities over the past five years.

A police spokeswoman refused to comment.

Connex spokesman John Rees said thieves cut power to sections of track so they could steal copper.

"They were really getting to be quite sophisticated. We're glad to see what looks like one of the major crews off the tracks," he said.

The UK has also been hit by major copper thefts in the past year. There have been reports of the metal being sold to scrapyards, melted down, then shipped to China.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23366534-421,00.html

That does not make sense. The spot price for (legal) copper is only about US$3.80 per pound. There's no way China is paying upwards of AU$150 per kilo for stolen copper.

They just busted a bunch of scrappers around here, the state has a waiting period on anything upwards of 50$ worth of scrap, caught a bunch of the yards paying out way more, and "neglecting" to record the transactions, they also found stuff like virgin 10' lengths of copper pipe, full rolls of THHN, bundles of romex (most likely taken from HD) It's getting worse and worse as copper becomes more valuable, and those hurt by the ecenomic slump turn more and more to what they see as an easy source of cash.

Today I learned of a builder who custom orders his romex ... in PINK. Seems he hopes this will reduce the losses from his sites, by making his wire recognizable.

It may just work. I use to work for a contractor who's extension cords were hot pink. I asked him of all color, why pink? He told me since he switched, the cost for lost cords on jobsites went way down. No macho contractor wants to be driving around town with a pink extension cord hanging off of their rig.

Here in Southern California they're on to bigger ventures.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-copper6mar06,0,6496161.story

The Sheriff Joe Arpaio effect!

its getting pretty common for houses that are left empty in my area to get broken into and have all of the wire and plumbing butcherd and removed along with the a/c unit and lines. not only that but they actually steal the aluminum siding also....

The newest targets here are now schools and churches with copper spouting and plumbing.

Whole classrooms were flooded when thieves ripped all the copper waterpipes out of a local primary school and caused 1000's of dollars worth of damage.
The school was closed for the day when plumbers replaced everything with PVC.

Here's one I thought I'd share...
The girlfriend is a district manager for the city and she informed me that the city I live in is having problems with someone stealing the underground copper feeders between some of the pole lighting at one of the local stadiums.. Apparently this is the second time this year the thieves have hit the place and cleaned out all the wiring outside of the fence!! They figure they used a truck to pull and tote the wire off because they found tire tracks and chewed up grass all around the outside of the fence and around the poles each time the wiring was stolen.

I wonder whats next on the thieves list?!

A.D

Well...now that the light poles aren't lit up it should be a simple matter to salvage them for the Aluminum. After all, who's going to see them being stolen in the dark of night??