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#118139 08/13/04 12:19 AM
Joined: Oct 2000
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Got a call to a home in not the greatest neighborhood, but not quite the worst... Lady & daughter cam home & went to turn the lights on... nothing, then she went to check the breakers....... They hit 3 houses, & peculiarly, stealing the cover for the utility connections also!

-Randy
[Linked Image]

#118140 08/13/04 12:54 AM
Joined: May 2003
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Ok what is with these breaker thieves? They're lifting reletively cheap used breakers...... Not some high dollar items on the street, or are they? I have a 12 gallon bucket full!


Mark Heller
"Well - I oughta....." -Jackie Gleason
#118141 08/13/04 02:38 AM
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 625
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It's hard to make out on my screen--what are those black things sitting in the utility side? They look kind of like the missing breakers.

[This message has been edited by SolarPowered (edited 08-13-2004).]

#118142 08/13/04 03:34 AM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,438
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SolarPowered...
Those are breakers from my van that I'm getting ready to install!

#118143 08/13/04 05:33 AM
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 681
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Stealing breakers from a home - when there are other more vaulable items? It does not make sense.
When did this sort of thing start, and do you know if it has happened more than once?

Pierre


Pierre Belarge
#118144 08/13/04 09:11 AM
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 745
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If these thieves are that desperate, I'm surprised they didn't steal the main also!! [Linked Image] After all, that's where the BIG money is... [Linked Image]

...Used to be this sort of thing only happened with old abandoned equipment. I guess this is another byproduct of our economy. [Linked Image]

Mike (mamills)

BTW: Are replacement utility-side covers available, or will you have to fabricate something?

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 08-13-2004).]

#118145 08/13/04 09:55 AM
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 840
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Perhaps it wasn't the value of the breakers (what's a used Homeline worth anyway???), but the mere act of destroying someone's property that was the motivation?

Either way it's sick, and sooner or later these morons are going to become eligible for a Darwin award.

Randy, judging from the panel, is this home relatively new?

Peter


Peter
#118146 08/13/04 11:10 AM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,438
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Pierre,
First time I've come across someone stealing resi breakers, first time for this customer also... One thing of note.. There are more homes still under construction across the street from this place... Someone run out of breakers on the job? [Linked Image]
Mike,
I've got confusing signs on the perpitraitor being an electrician or someone who might just know something about electricity.... possibly they were going to steal the main & got lit up big time trying to disconnect one of the poco phases? [Linked Image] (This would also explain the missing covers.) As far as the missing cover... H.O's insurance is covering this, so I added the cost of another panel into the job,bought one & took the poco cover for this panel...

Peter,
Home is only a year old! One side of the street is completed, the other side is still under construction (rough in stage), for about the first couple blocks...

Another thing I was thinking is someone can easily walk these into the nearest Home Depot & have store credit for the new price of these towards anything they want.. (Tools, etc..)

-Randy

#118147 08/13/04 02:28 PM
Joined: Feb 2002
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Randy,

What city/town is this? Since you're a California resi guy, you can appreciate this. I went out to visit my friends in Carlsbad a few years ago. They live in one of those new mega developments that sprung up on a poinsettia farm.

Anyway, I was walking through some of the homes under construction, and noticed the the wiring was pretty bad, look here In one house that I managed to check out during the finish, they left an entire box of Homeline breakers on the ground in front of the panel. Oddly enough, it happened to rain the week I was there too! Inside, they left GFIs, smoke detectors, devices and other stuff all over the place. All perfectly good stuff that they just left behind to get tossed. Unbelievable! [Linked Image]

Peter


Peter
#118148 08/13/04 02:57 PM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,438
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Peter,
This was in Fontana out in the Inland Empire... The call came into me about 10pm & I didnt get there till almost 11pm... the construction site across the street really gave me the creeps.. wierd noises kept coming from back in there someplace, so I didn't bother to go "adventuring" while i was there.. (I'm sure the H.O. wouldve loved me to go find her some new breakers in there!)
I do remember when I was a kid I wandered into a construction site for some condo's on a Sunday & found all kinds of stuff laying out... Trim, boxes, rolls of romex, etc...

Almost reminds me of a job I was working on where the foreman thought that some fluorescent cans with battery back up ballasts hadnt been delivered & told the office to have them reshipped.... At the end of the job when we were cleaning out our container, we found em buried in the back... He gave me 5 & another journeyman 5 & told us to "make them disappear" [Linked Image]

-Randy

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