what’s wrong do you have faith in the legal system or do you have a soft spot for crooks? thieves are scum end of story.
I remember reading that as well. Ah, the creativity of those who refuse to find an honest job. I know of a couple of instances of the idiots stealing brand new electrical cabling (typically this stuff is wrapped in shrink wrap on the spool from the factory) who brought it to Miller Compressing - on the spool and shrink warpped. They claimed they found it in a ditch. In that case the scrap yard called the cops as soon as they saw them pull up and the cops did arrest them.
I’ve also heard the WE Energies linemen talking about the not so nice instances - the guys who broke into substations and tried to steal active high voltage cables. Sometimes they wouldn’t find them until the next day - you’re nothing but a peice of charcoal by then. I have a real hard time feeling sorry for them. It’s also kind of funny because some of them are actually thinking a little bit and they tried to through an aluminum bat into the primary cabling, in an effort to trip the high voltage circuit breaker
I know some scrap yards here in Indiana check your ID or even call When I worked for a axle company we bought a rim manufacturer out and we sold all the aluminium wheels for scrap I took 900 rims in the back of a pick up and trailer while they were unloading me the actually called the company I worked for asking if I was legit which I was but when got back I got some ribbing but anyway most don’t they could care less I know in Chicago the guardrails on the stoney island exit were stolen and sold for scrap I haven’t been by there recently but I still think they haven’t replaced them yet
So far there have been no thefts of active wires from railroads in this area.
The wires from the decades old, inactive telegraph lines appear to have been removed in the past 2 years by somebody.
There are news stories in Michigan about some person or groups of people who steal the wires off of active, moving irrigation systems for large farm fields.
It somewhat puzzles me that the construction crews have such a hard time always sorting out the scrap metals from the wood scrap at construction sites. If the metal is so valuable in any form, they should be putting it into a dedicated, locking container.
Andrew
This is currently my standard practice.
When you live in a tiny town like I do, where for years people haven’t even locked their doors, it’s kind of a wakeup call to discover that something you didn’t give a lot of thought to as a theft target turns up missing.
Even moreso when that item is something that was firmly affixed to something else (wires, plumbing).
It’s kind of scary to think that there may be thieves brazen enough to scale the pole across the street from my house as well as ladder my front porch to steal my phone and cable wires (or maybe even my power drop).
Well the problem sure isn’t new. I was working opr job in (SP&S) Bend, Oregon in the late 60’s when the telegraph circut went dead between Bend and (GN) KFalls. Line found 30 some spans of wire missing from pole line down around LaPine!
In residential new construction of homes it has historically been the norm for contractors and suppliers to stack the wire, cooper pipe, etc. in the garage of home under construction and simply close the garage door but these days they can’t do that, which means closer delivery tolerances and HIGHER COSTS for everybody (except the thief).
Well…it could be worse. Steel prices could skyrocket and the next thing the theives would be doing is ripping up rail tracks, which to me is a more serious problem.
Don’t be giving them ideas, now.
IIRC, that may have already happened, just not in this country, unless you count what the railroads did to themselves…
Copper Wiring is one thing, Whole signals are another. In the last year CSX has had to replace the Eastbound dwarf at the west end of Sterling twice, after someone or some people stole them.
And it continues (ripped from the Trains.com news wire):
January 8, 2008 WILMINGTON, Ill. - Two out-of-work electricians were arrested for allegedly stealing copper wire from a Union Pacific grade crossing here, according to ABC 7 News.
Seems like many folks made copper theft part of their new years resolution. [;)]
I see it happen at LEAST twice a month on my desk in the same place…
around Worthington, OH
IT makes my job a pain in the A$$
That’s already here. Pig steel goes for about 130 a ton, and in railroad terms it doesn’t take much to get that kind of weight. In fact, I think some wing nut was caught ripping up the track on the CN over in Mequon or Grafton a couple of months ago. I think the cops got him ripping up tie plates.
Here in Elkhart the scrap yards know if someone brings any rail components they are to call the RR police