At an apartment complex I lived in years ago each apartment had an electric boiler in a closet for the baseboard heating. At some point they decided the pressure relief valves should vent to the outside (geniuses) so they came around and ran a copper pipe from the valves out through a hole they drilled in the walls. The pipes stuck out a couple of inches on the outside of the buildings and within a couple of weeks all of them had been cut off flush with the wall. This is the extent these losers will go to... going from building to building cutting off 2 inches of copper pipe at a time. They couldn't have gotten more than a couple of pounds total.
Ah, but is there anything worth stealing?
Sorry!
In the 70s I was taken to an address in Handsworth, Birmingham by a friend to see his buddy's hifi. Arriving at the terraced house it looked like an impoverished pensioner lived there. There were tatty curtains at the window and everything was in a state of neglect.
Inside, the house was nicely decorated and the system must have been worth several thousand £s even then. Nothing was insured. It would have been too expensive - in one of the most run down areas in the city. As an aside, I used to go to the annual Handsworth Carnival. A brilliant day out in the park with reggae and Carribbean music and dancing.
There is a bit of sheep rustling goes on.....Ah, but is there anything worth stealing?
The recyclers here will no longer take them. Pt - Pt/Rh thermocouples are the standard for semiconductor diffusion ovens, we had them stolen regularly. My sister almost threw out my father's jewelry making supplies after he passed away, there was 5oz of Pt wire mixed in with the cheap stuff.
In the 1970's I was serving in the U.S. Air Force, assigned to the unit that planned and designed microwave radio networks linking many overseas bases. The microwave radios installed at even a low-capacity relay tower might cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unmanned locations often protected these assets with arrays of fences, several tiers thick, constructed from reinforced stainless steel mesh, concertina razor wire, and monitored by elaborate intrusion detectors.
I was told that at a few sites in the Philippines even these measures were inadequate. Not that we ever lost a radio . . . . but every few years, somebody stole the fence.
(I never had first-hand experience with this, and I didn't have access to the records that would verify it, but I heard the story too many times, from too many sources, to dismiss it as legend.)
Dale
Thieves here will steal the copper wiring out of a vacant house or storefront. On construction sites, plumbers spray paint copper pipes flat black so thieves can't see them from the street.
It is mandatory to have overnight security at a construction site. Otherwise, thieves will steal EVERYTHING - any construction materials and tools are guaranteed to be gone if left unattended over night.
Catalytic converters are stolen all the time. Thieves favor trucks and SUVs that don't have to be jacked up to access them. A minute with a rechargeable Sawzall is all it takes. I thought it was pretty petty until I talked to a cop who said that the thieves get around $300 for a stolen converter.
It seems that crime pays better than jobs around here.
It is mandatory to have overnight security at a construction site. Otherwise, thieves will steal EVERYTHING - any construction materials and tools are guaranteed to be gone if left unattended over night.
Catalytic converters are stolen all the time. Thieves favor trucks and SUVs that don't have to be jacked up to access them. A minute with a rechargeable Sawzall is all it takes. I thought it was pretty petty until I talked to a cop who said that the thieves get around $300 for a stolen converter.
It seems that crime pays better than jobs around here.
An AM transmitter site to remain anonymous was hit by copper thieves armed with voltmeters. They stripped every length that wasn't energized. The theft wasn't discovered until a power failure called for backup power from a disconnected generator.
Thieves in the area regularly steal copper from AM tower ground systems. They know to leave at least one strand to avoid triggering a metering alarm. Most site operators converted the exposed portion of their ground systems to stainless. Not as good as copper except for the the fact you can count on it being there.
Have the one line that's "not" energized hooked up to a low current sensing loop. Have a little low power CMOS circuit that senses the break, and immediately relays close to energize both ends with the business end of a pole pig. Make sure you have at least one surveillance camera trained on it. That YouTube would go viral. I'd pay to watch.
The Canadian Government.
Penny (Canadian coin - Wikipedia)
"On February 4, 2013, Google celebrated the beginning of the end for the Canadian penny with a Google Doodle.[23] On the same day the Canadian Mint began melting down the estimated 35 billion pennies that are in circulation.
Cash transactions are now rounded to the nearest 5¢."
Penny (Canadian coin - Wikipedia)
"On February 4, 2013, Google celebrated the beginning of the end for the Canadian penny with a Google Doodle.[23] On the same day the Canadian Mint began melting down the estimated 35 billion pennies that are in circulation.
Cash transactions are now rounded to the nearest 5¢."
And when you went to the mail box you found an heating and cooling contractor business card ......
Interesting thread to read.
About 3 weeks ago I woke up one morning to see someone had stolen all 4 wheels off the neighbors new car, and left the car on a pair of scissors jacks. Wheels are 1200 AUD each, so not a cheap theft. Car now on jack stands while insurance is taking their time with things. Seems to take a month to get new wheels from Japan, or wherever they are made.
Same thieves had also hit the Toyota dealer the same night but got spooked off after getting only two wheels.
The replacement car is gets parked inside the backyard at night.
About 3 weeks ago I woke up one morning to see someone had stolen all 4 wheels off the neighbors new car, and left the car on a pair of scissors jacks. Wheels are 1200 AUD each, so not a cheap theft. Car now on jack stands while insurance is taking their time with things. Seems to take a month to get new wheels from Japan, or wherever they are made.
Same thieves had also hit the Toyota dealer the same night but got spooked off after getting only two wheels.
The replacement car is gets parked inside the backyard at night.
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