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Posted By: livetoride Wire thief - 09/29/06 03:33 PM
From todays paper at least some get caught. Rod
CARLSBAD – Three men with a carload of stolen copper wire
sped away from an officer last night and tried to ram his
cruiser during a pursuit, Carlsbad police said.
The thieves drove into a Costa del Mar Road condominium
complex and bailed out of the car, letting it roll into
a parked car. The men ran in different directions, but
police later caught one man believed to have been the driver.
Cpl. Scott Meritt stopped the three as they were leaving
a closed construction site on Alicante Road about 7 p.m.
with wire bundles in the car. Copper, valuable at recycling
centers, is a popular target of thieves. The driver sped away,
but at one point reversed his car and tried to back into the
officer's cruiser before speeding off again.

The driver, found in a Melrose Drive canyon, was
jailed on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon,
evading, possession of stolen goods and driving under the influence.
Posted By: skipr Re: Wire thief - 09/29/06 06:07 PM
Good! it's about time someone gets caught.
Posted By: steve ancient apprentice Re: Wire thief - 09/29/06 11:20 PM
About time. Cant stand a crook.
Posted By: renosteinke Re: Wire thief - 09/30/06 01:00 AM
Locally, we just had a wildfire started when someone decided to remove a 'dead' utility line.... on the way to the ground, contact was made with a live line, and the fire started.

THIS time, the fire was held to a few acres, and no homes were damaged.

Can someone say "inside job?"
Posted By: mamills Re: Wire thief - 09/30/06 02:24 PM
If the police officers greased the SOB driver who tried to kill them, that would be the icing on the cake.

I have no tolerance whatsoever for thieves. As far as I'm concerned, a good thief is a dead thief [Linked Image].

Mike (mamills)
Posted By: gfretwell Re: Wire thief - 09/30/06 03:50 PM
These days, with the quality of cheap web cams, I am surprised more job sites are not monitored. They don't really have that much trouble at my wife's place yet but that is my plan when they do. Any old PC, ~350mz or faster, will support a camera card and they have quite a bit of available software that will do motion detection and such. Nothing convicts a thief faster than a video of his theft at his trial. The trick is to hide the "real" cameras and give the crooks a few decoys in a monitored location. Just be sure the video is stored somewhere else so if they do destroy your camera you get that shot too.
Posted By: e57 Re: Wire thief - 09/30/06 06:16 PM
"Nothing convicts a thief faster than a video of his theft at his trial."

After my van got busted into the last time when the cops arrived 3 hours later I had a picture of the %&^* in my hand from my flower-pot cam..... So the cops say to me, "would you be able to identify him if you saw him again?" I look at the picture that I had already shown them, that they seemed not interested in, "I think so!" [Linked Image]
Posted By: gfretwell Re: Wire thief - 10/01/06 04:04 PM
At least you will know you are shooting the right guy when you catch him.
Posted By: Tesla Re: Wire thief - 10/02/06 06:57 AM
e57...

That stupid question is an obligatory FORM QUESTION from the District Attorney.

Every cop needs to hear the word: yes.

They're not retards: they're following the rules come from on high.

[This message has been edited by Tesla (edited 10-02-2006).]
Posted By: Luketrician Re: Wire thief - 10/02/06 07:10 AM
Last year the townhouse I was living in was burglarized. When the police came to 'investigate', they asked me if I had any idea who might have done it. I replied, "no thats why I called you guys!" Makes me wonder about them smokies.
Posted By: Trumpy Re: Wire thief - 10/02/06 08:32 AM
Tell me,
Why are there so many threads here about copper theft?.
Or theft in general.
Is it that people feel better after submitting a post to one of these threads?.
Sure if there is a shortage of anything some idiots will steal it.
Some people just steal for the money gained for drugs and booze.
Why is it that the original thread was not used and replied to and we have all these new threads.
Sure it keeps the thread turn-over up, but it is a tad annoying here, logging on and see another theft thread in here.
Posted By: gfretwell Re: Wire thief - 10/02/06 03:05 PM
Trumpy
Perhaps worksite theft is not that big a problem down there. It is a big cost of doing business in the construction industry around here. Tools and materials dissapear all the time. I think folks are always open to ideas of how to deal with it.
Posted By: Jps1006 Re: Wire thief - 10/02/06 05:43 PM
Yes, it is theropy. Often times there is nothing else you can do but cry about it.
Posted By: renosteinke Re: Wire thief - 10/03/06 01:04 AM
Mike, I appreciate these threads. For some silly reason, our local news is somewhat shy about reporting "bad" things. A cynic might say that they are afraid of scaring the tourists.

An example: two years ago, the are was hit by a band of thieves. These guys brought heavy equipment, cleared out entire jobsites, removed job boxes and trailers. This was not considered news "fit" for public consumption until the gang had been at work for six weeks, and had hit at least 27 different sites.

I believe that, had we received the news in a timely manner, many of the intended victims would have taken steps to protect themselves. Instead, the media, and the police department, waited until there were no big jobs left to hit, before announcing that there was a "rash" of such burglaries.

Ditto for the copper theft. What I hear from my PoCo sources is considerably different from the absolute lack of mention in the local press.

Give me the info, and I can make good decisions.
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