Dying for copper, a war "dividend"?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

People are dying, trying to steal copper. Desperate measures.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070604/UPDATE/706040388/1003

People have stolen copper from new-home construction sites, old homes, copper gutters from church roofs, copper pipes from air conditioners. It seems like a new crime wave.

Why the demand for copper? China's new construction projects? Full-metal jackets for bullets in Iraq/Afghanistan?

(I almost posted this in the Lounge, because it's "almost" funny, "almost" worthy of a Darwin award. But then it seems not so funny.)

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. They resell it.

[hobbit709]

2. If you play with electricity

it will bite. Stealing copper is one thing, trying to steal copper from a live wire is definitely a Darwin Award nomination.

[Kagemusha]

3. China's new construction projects is a lot closer to the truth.

I was hearing about the price rising a few years ago and China was the reason why. As in, picking up the slack that existed.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. In regards to copper, world growth and demand has outpaced supply

There's been a rising global demand for copper for some years now. It's not just copper that's up, lead, zinc, and nickel have also skyrocketed.


Since copper is highly recyclable people steal it and sell it for scrap.

[Sanctified]

5. Here in Oregon the steal Copper, Brass, Iron and Steel which is then

sold for scrap metal and the people doing the stealing are mostly meth heads, they use the money to pay for their habit.

[jmowreader]

6. This is an old crime wave

Copper's expensive and easy to resell--get a pickup truck, fill it with copper and go to any scrap metal dealer.

Building materials suppliers are getting hit too; we've caught people attempting to steal thousand-foot reels of house wire.

Arson used to be REAL popular as a method of stealing copper--you'd dump 20 gallons of gas on the floor of a house, set it on fire and steal the plumbing. You don't hear about that so much anymore because everyone plumbs with plastic these days and stealing installed wire is more trouble than it's worth. People will break in and steal your circuit breakers, though; there's quite a bit of copper in them and they pop right out.

[Tesha]

7. Copper is stolen all the time in America.

Plumbers and electricians know this and have to lock
it up very well. And once in a while, a fool dies
trying to remove energized powerlines.

Did you know that the latest thing is to steal empty
stainless steel *BEER KEGS* because the stainless is
valuable on the scrap metal market? "Empties" are now
rooutinely chained up.

Tesha

[mtnester]

8. It is so bad in Ohio

they have PSA commercials about it, showing a guy who DIED stealing it.

Same thing with steel and iron...City of Columbus cannot keep hold of their manhole covers...and some unscupulous scap yards take trucks full of manholes...no questions asked.

It is a real scourge here right now.

[Arkansas Granny]

15. We get the same PSA's in Arkansas. It has gotten so bad that

my boss recently considered hiring a guard for a new construction site we are working on that has miles of copper wiring. It's not uncommon to have wiring and copper pipe stripped from new homes while they are still under construction. They rip it right out of the walls.

[mtnester]

18. Folks are starting to hire guard dogs let loose inside houses under construction

to stop the theft of every single piece of wire and plumbing in the house overnight. They let them loose in the house, and the workers who get their early before the handlers arrive to remove the dogs DARE not go in until they are taken out.

Happening everywhere here.

[NaturalHigh]

9. Somewhere, I have a pretty gruesome slide show...

of a guy who fried himself stealing copper from inside a hot substation. It literally blew him apart at the limbs and the crotch.

[hobbit709]

11. Stupidity carries its own penalty

And sentence is carried out immediately.

[NaturalHigh]

13. Yes, the gene pool occasionally cleanses itself.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

16. Unless he's stealing to feed his kids ...

in which case the genetic damage has already been done to the pool.

I didn't realize how widespread this was, until I posted here. The one that really stood out for me was the copper pipe stolen from a church's air conditioning system. That was thousands in damage for a few bucks worth of copper. Way more than mere water pipes or electric wires.

[Wilms]

10. I had to get quotes for copper cable recently.

The salesperson said the price was good for a few days but he might have to requote if it was beyond that.

And the cost of the stuff has gone up quite a bit.

Add to that it's weight, and the shipping costs that are related, which have also gone up with the price of gas.

Sound familiar?

[AlCzervik]

12. there is always a demand for copper pipe, this has been happening for years.

[NashVegas]

14. Upscale Housing Now Often Uses Copper Facade Work

I'm seeing a lot of it going in on the local McMansions & McCastles.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

17. I've seen the copper awnings etc on new construction

I didn't know if it was copper, or just copper-plated steel (or copper-plated plastic, if such stuff exists).

McMansions and McCastles, I like it. I'm not in that McMarket.