There's stupid criminals and then there's this guy. Plastered all over the news and no suspects or witnesses. Might as well of just walked into the police station. https://edmontonjournal.com/news/cr...pected-bench-plaque-thief-at-scrap-metal-shop
Reminds me of show of stupid criminals .3 guys are robbing a fur store ,one guy stays in car 2 go into store . Cops pull up ,car takes off ,cops park where car was. Guy comes out of store with arm full of furs and puts on top of police car ,goes back for another load . Second guy comes out cops pull him to the side. First guy comes out for the second time and gets grabbed.
Our dirtbags near to here are stealing the Bronze statuary and flower vases off graves with Several Military Plaques(Federal Offense), pickup anything NOT nailed down with any copper color to it backyards, side yards, anything ornamental. Scrappers will NOT take the stuff without a Driver License and a Signature, ONLY gives checks that have to be cashed where can be photo'd. Seeing a down turn trend since that started.
Jesus, what a lost cause..
I'm wondering if I will get some attention if I take some copper wire I have in the barn? Last fall was having some work done on apron to garage and walk-way. Seems I forgot to mention to the contractor and he forgot to ask how the electric power got to the garage. Well the main power was three #8 copper wires running through conduit right under the walk-way! Guy was cutting down to get a good base for the new walk-way pavers and he "found" the conduit! Ripped the electric panel off the wall in garage and cut the wires off. At least 50 feet from junction box in house to garage panel, so have at least 150 feet of nice shiny #8 copper to dispose of along with some #14 wires for lights. Think I should put my grubbiest clothes on and not shave a couple before walking into the scrap yard? Maybe park the car down the street and just walk up to the place?
One fellow about a year ago was found, basically a pile of ashes inside the fenced transformer station in the Tri Cities. I guess he never heard of a thing called a Hot stick, he was looking to run off with some copper.
Some things do tend to be self correcting, gene pool gained a bit that day!
Seen similar when worked East St Louis Line crew called for service call Flat tire so I got sent Guy was trying to blow fuse on line to steal the conductor on a pole as well gut a transformer Threw a chain up over a 7200 line, were thinking he turned his back for the flash but failed to ground until swung into him. Flame on! Did pop the line fuse.
I remember that one. Poof!
Darwin’s theory up front and personal
Yeah, a couple years back we had meth heads stealing wire off of center pivot irrigation machines, the farmers wised up and left the 480V power on but they started using insulated pruning shears to cut the cables and start stripping them off. It was actually fish and game wardens that caught most of them burning insulation in remote areas.
They like that out in the delta too. I seem to remember a company solely dealing with automated center pivot security. Cannot remember the name now though.
Troubleman called me out one saturday Had gone down a overgrown alley to find aline break and wadded a box spring wire mess around drive shaft. Anyway while there watched the goings on as the druggies had smartened up some. Chain sawed a set of three power poles Line went dead so they snatched cable, took sledge to transformer lid and jerked the aluminum core. Balsy bunch in that region. To steal power for house would hang romex from a nail driven thru a narrow piece of wood Hand hang it off transformer outlet lug to run into house meter base. Would run a few lights maybe a microwave and a TV.
My wife worked for PPL, some of the stories of houses that had power disconnected and a lineman drives by checking and finds jumper cables hooked up on top of the pole.
Lately we've had the tweeters stealing the cable out of ball fields and stadiums. The state put in the requirements that you had to show a drivers license to turn in copper at any of the scrap places. I don't think it is doing much to stop them. I wonder how many of the scrap places actually care where the stuff comes from. I haven't heard of anyone caught because a scrap yard turned then in.
Had one guy just down the road that kept re-hooking....power co. removed the wires from the house to the transformer. Then opened the switches at the main line that fed his transformer. Ed
We had some caught here a few years ago. They came in with about $30k worth of stolen oilfield equipment. Who knew the oilfield had not abandoned that $8k brand new screw compressor and that other stuff? There was not even anybody watching it!
20 years ago in this area it was anhydrous ammonia theft. It was being used in the making of meth. It was common for farmers to find a plastic jug and hose laying next to a tank. At the ag place I worked the anhydrous trailers were parked in the yard where I worked for the winter. When I would come to work in the mornings I would turn my high beams on and make a pass around the trailers expecting to find a body laying on the ground. If you haven't been around anhydrous-it is some deadly stuff handled wrong.
Having MFA Farm Services and other fertilizer dealers here the Horror stories on Meth heads trying to steal Anhydrous are enough to stand hair on end. Idiots with as noted plastic jugs or open five gallon buckets, knocking off valves on tanks, BIG Yard Tanks or even the thousand gallon buggies, too stupid for words. Desiccates the dying morons pretty quick as sucks all the moisture out of them. Also get a laugh when at salvage lot, when a idiot comes in with RR equipment, chase him off as has the plague, same for art works here, they show up even with the stuff mangled and mashed can still tell what it was, our lots just won't accept it. Big game in STL proper is theft of AC units to scrap copper and aluminum, not many yards will pay Cash, always some form of ID Required Checks, thieves have been known to just dump the stuff and run.
Alberta's Sustainable Resource Development looks after major forest fires. A fire went through my property in 2010 and they locked all the fire pumps in vans overnight when putting out hot spots. The fire boss told me that a couple years prior one of their $7000 fire fighting pumps was found in a pawn shop complete with SRD and a serial number engraved on it. Don't know what happened to the pawn shop but would expect some serious charges were laid.