ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Job Site Theft

The re birth of the stolen tool thread made me think of this a step furtherer. Job site theft is a big problem in a lot of areas. We recently did a job that was repeatedly ripped off. They actually cut the hinges of the storage bins with cutting torches to peal the doors off! This is a very affluent part of Orange County too. Eventually the GC got security and it stopped but a lot of material was stolen in the mean time.
Another problem we have is breaker theft. It has been quiet for a while but it seems to go in cycles. They like to steal breakers of the 200 to about 1200A variety. The real expensive electronic and ground fault type. They stay away from the 3 and 4000A mains though. I guess they are too heavy. Like I said it seems to go in cycles and when they hit, they hit everyone around. About 6 years ago we did a building at Disney that had it’s two 12KV indoor substations stripped clean of the 480V breakers 3 times! $250,000.00 worth. Energized gear or de energized, it doesn’t matter. They did make a mistake once though. One of our jobs in LA got a surprise one morning. The electric room door was broken open and there was burn marks everywhere and a hole in the wall. Someone tried to steal an energized 480V 800A main and slipped. The resulting explosion blew one of them through the steel stud wall. They were found at the UCI Medical Center in the burn unit. I never did hear if they survived or not.
Is this a problem around the country? Or is it just us here in Southern California?

Ho-o-o- weee. Now that is summary judgement. That made my day to read that.

Our biggest one time loss to these guys has been about $25K in C/Bs. They also have gotten into buildings and pulled out all the feeders on us overnight (Which is faster than they were put in, to be sure).
All the breaker houses I know of are on the lookout for this type of stuff, so I don't know where they "fence" them. (Derelicts don't generally "find" new 65K breakers in trash cans).
The losses can be covered by insurance, but the time lost obtaining new replacements has absolutely screwed us on finish dates, and even though our suppliers have jumped through hoops to get us new ones, jobs have gone into liquidated damages status because of them.
Wish I'd have known that one was in UCI, I would've liked to have gone over and kicked him.