Read where a thief in Spartanburg, SC was sentenced to 60 years for copper thefts amounting to about $5,000, but did damage of over $200,000.

Something definitely needs to be done about copper theft, but I don't know if 60 years in prison for a non-violent crime is the solution. At an average cost to keep someone in prison excess of $40,000/year, this is going to cost taxpayers well over $2 million to keep him incarcerated. I'd be more inclined to let him go free, BUT require him to maintain employment and pay $10,000 a year (or more) back to the entity that he stole from.

To sentence a guy to essentially life in prison for stealing/damages to the tune of $205,000 compared to what sentences are awarded for really serious crimes just doesn't seem equitable. Then again, what about all these investment bankers and CEO's that are pillaging their companies in the tens of millions with nothing more than a slap on the hand. But that's a subject for a whole new thread.

Isn't it amazing? A few points rise in the market price, and we suddenly have far more "recycling" than we can handle! All done without having a 'commissioner,' or submitting invoices to some "green" group for their approval.

Otherwise, I'll not shed any tears for the convicted. Hard and unfair? Perhaps it seems that way - to him. Let's not forget all the hardship he unfairly inflicted upon his victims.

That others may evade punishment for their crimes has nothing to do with this. Indeed, I'd rather the fugitives fear, rather than the criminal have confidence in striking a 'deal' at our expense.

Enforced employment? Let me get this right ... the employer can lay off the law-abiding, but the crook would be guaranteed a job? I think not.

That metal thieving thing seems to have fallen off to nothing around here. I had some aluminum sitting in front of my house for free for a week and finally the trash man took it.

Greg:
Matter of fact, I had two EC's commenting that the 'scraps' that would be gone before it hit the floor....are still laying on the jobsite for 2 days.

On my street in the last month we have had the copper grounds from the pole transfomrers cut from the ground rod to about 6 feet up the pole on 4 of the 6 transformers.

Its been called in twice and the utility doesent seem to be in any hurry to come out and fix them either.

I'm surprised that the metal thieves haven't made off with the pure copper catenary lines they are installing along the new MAX line on I-205 here in Portland... A couple guys, a ladder and a truck could make off with a lot of copper very quickly.

Prices have dropped. Remember &3.75/lb.
Thieves are lazy.

The SC case sounds like an urban legend - The facts should be easy to check - SC and town are listed, but no name - generally a clue that it's a hoax

http://www.wyff4.com/spartanburgnewsroom/18905411/detail.html#-

I heard about one in the county I live, someone broke into a substation tried to steal the copper ground line of the transformer and struck an arc off the transfromer. I not sure what happened to the person though.

Lineman came finally came by yesterday morning to repair the stolen transformer grounds on our back lane.

I talked to him as I was going out and he was saying that he has been busy splicing grounds for he last few weeks because of thefts.

Manitoba Hydro is now putting a 8 ft metal U chanel over the lower part of the repaired lines instead of the normal wood molding.

Are they bonding it at both ends

Just my opinion and a tad off topic,
But what ever happened to Neighbourhood Watch groups?
The idea that you don't even know your own neighbours says something about society these days, people are out for themselves, not the community good.
I am involved with Civil Defence over here and after the big snow of 2005, on a "sortie" around my area to see that everyone was OK, it was news to most that I was involved with CD and also that anyone actually gave a damn about them in the first place, even though they had no power or heating.
Community is still just that, community is made up of people, with needs.

Sorry to take this thread off topic.

Spoke to EC at one job that was destroyed about two months back. Due to the extent of the damages ($150K+) the 'genius' that was after the copper is facing major felony charges, and remains in jail.

There was a recent article within one of the trade mags re: this subject. I'll look for it later today/tonite.

Mike I am the neighborhood watch captain in my little community but the real problem with actually catching the bad guy is they tend to do their evil deeds at 4 to 5AM. The other problem is getting the cops interested in anything that doesn't involve sex, massive amounts of drugs or murder.
I had a car burglar cold, a video tape of the theft, pictures of both sides of the $2 bill he stole and where he spent it. The cops didn't do anything.
This guy was sweeping our neighborhood almost every night, stealing everything that wasn't locked up.
They finally arrested him when a home owner delivered him to them at gun point as a result of an "occupied home burglary". He did 3/4ths of a 90 day sentence. He is out now and we are all looking out for him.
The biggest fear for a criminal is that a homeowner takes the Florida "castle doctrine" seriously and drops the weasel on sight.

Article is in Nov 2008 EC&M mag. I'll check if it's on-line tonite, time permitting.

Greg: Yes, getting 'priority' LE for copper is not #1 on the list here either.

If your are asking about the U channel its not but then the wire does not run wild in it either as is stapled to the pole. The U arch has about a 2 inch air gap aroud the wire.

And as for law enforcement interest, they sure got interested here about a year ago when the new district polce station being built was stipped bare over a weekend.

I just wonder what an engineer would say about the choke they made with that metal sleeve.

No, It's true. I live in Spartanburg SC. Theres more to the story. Most if not all the copper was AC coils and plumbing pipe. Commercial and residential. The thief had been caught before and he was with his wife. She has been charged too. Both have criminal records.
The scrap yard where they were taking the copper is owned by a local county councilman.

Greg what choke? It is a U channel not a raceway. the steel does not wrap the ground conductor and does not create a choke. No current or counter EMF is formed until the channel becomes a tube.

I'm so embarrassed

The "bars" in that billboard appear to be copper pipe/tubing, not wire...

How could any one feel sympathy for a thief.

Nuff said. (sorry just went off the title)

My guess is that they are actually printed on to the billboard in which case they would be made of ink

Theft of copper pipe is a big problem, too, FYI!

Ok, the bars in the photograph printed on the billboard...

That is because the person who did the picture was an unlicensed hack, and did not know the difference between wire and pipe.

If they were real bars, they'd have been stolen.

Its only been about 3 years since I entered this post and the lines that have been repaired are missing again. It looks like they used a bar/screwdriver to pry off the clamps holding the prodtective u chanel and took it as well. About 1 and 1/2 blocks worth of transformers (5) have had their grounds stollen.

It only seems plain to me that the only solution is to switch to another material, such as a copper bearing steel, a stainless steel, or a silver-colored copper alloy such as Monel for such uses.

Just came home from work and while it is dark out it now appears that over 4 blocks on my back lane have been hit by thieves. Out of those 4 blocks there are only 3 transformers that still have the copper grounds attached.

I think Wednesday I'll go for a walk down the backlane on the other side of the street and see if they have had "visitors" as well

Recyclers can no longer claim innocence: #4 solid bare copper is a TELL.

The cops / legislators need to update their game: cameras must record EVERY copper recycler.

Particularly ANY copper beyond #6... which is rarely retailed -- and never in quantity.

I think the problem is that there are intermediaries along the way that take the scrap, sort it and chip it before it gets to the legitimate recycler so it is hard to tell what the source of the copper really is. The thief may only be getting 40 cents on the dollar of what clean scrap draws and there is a layer or two of protection along the way.

At least I don't see full rolls of copper wire sitting around the scrap yards these days like I used to see.

Last I heard around here the yards are taking pics of the persons, no 'walk-in' trade, license plate of vehicle, and paying by CHECK.

That was from a local large yard.

That is why these thieves use an intermediary. Once the metal is chipped up and put in a drywall bucket, it is hard to prove where it came from so the guy who is getting his picture taken is fairly safe. They will be processing a lot of "legal" scrap too so the seller will have some kind of paper trail.
The middle man can still make a pretty good profit, simply cleaning up and sorting mixed scrap.

Did my morning walk and went down a few back lanes in the area, does not look good for the utility. Almost every transformer is missing 6-8 feet of wire from the ground rod going up the pole as high as somebody can reach.

I wonder if they were doing this at night or during the day for the number of blocks that they seem to have done.

I can't complain about copper theft because majority of my work is putting it back in. Good old Detroit, keepin me busy.

Is this a bad reason to support copper theft?

Now that is almost funny! Thinking along those lines, I guess that also should apply to the POCO guys!

The high voltage lines behind my house have a unique solution for this. The grounding conductor is cast inside the concrete poles. I will have to get look at the concrete poles by the side of the road.

Just checked my emails and found a follow up email from our local utility call center saying "the district office is aware of the problem and a large number of cables have been cut in the district."

I wonder if these guys do the thefts in broad daylight as most people would not question somebody with a hard hat, reflective vest, ladder and unmarked truck with all the contracting out going on.

They could use microdots. These are impossible to entirely remove and ensure that thieves or fences can be caught, even if they chip the copper. Though once the avenue for turning scrap into cash is curtailed, the problem will move elewhere, unfortunately.
http://www.hpicheck.com/theftguard.html

You'd have to put microdots along the entire length of the actual copper conductor and every single wire would have to be registered somehow, at least the owner needs to keep track of the numbers. I really can't see that being used on a large scale. If only one end of the conductor is microdotted, thieves will soon know that, check for microdots using a blacklight and cut the offending short piece of copper away.

Forcing all scrap yards to only accept dotted copper would be an even bigger effort, besides, there will be un-dotted old copper wires for quite some time.