Copper Thieves Hit Condo Project *NJ

Celtic

Copper thieves hit condo project




I can honestly say, I have never heard of this level of thievery around here.

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SelfContract

Organized crime, insider job (supervisor-employee-sub collaboration), all involved on that magnitude.

threaderman

They should cut-off a hand when they catch them.

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Mike Finley

You'd think that when guys like this show up at a re-cycler with $18,000 worth of copper someone might get a wee bit suspicious.

Dustball

I'm surpised they bothered stripping the copper from the sheathing while still in the house rather than just cutting it and doing it somewhere else.

SelfContract

Then it means that they might have total control & self-confident taking on their own time, meaning either the security guards were also involved or tips handsomely, or they know how to control/compromise the whole situation from gates/camera/doors/locks during 8 hours span too, etc. Stripping is the must-do because it's easy to fold/hide/sell the coppers to yard as junk stuffs when transporting/moving outside, and "cutting copper with sheathing intact" will leave finger prints where it orginally comes from, and the crap-yard owners will be very suspicious and will report to police or not into buying them (because of new law compliance with today scrap-yard STRICT license/penalty/rules).

Celtic

Incidents like this do happen all the time, in this case the location is disturbing.
Hudson Street is a pretty "active" street in Hoboken. Hoboken itself is a pretty "active" town...at appx. 1.2 sq. miles with 50K +/- residents(mostly yuppies) - it's a pretty tight fit.

It was a pretty brazen theft....but considering Hoboken has been re-building since the mid-80's, no one(average yuppie) could probably tell the difference between "install" and "removal"...although the city has work ordinances limiting "work" between 7AM and 10PM....and the location was literally around the corner from the police station.
Crazy.

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cmec

Back when I started 1976 copper was high ,the shop I worked for used copper clad aluminum on some jobs [we called it fools gold] Went to work one day did a rw went back to the shop .Two days later roughed the same house again . Wonder what copper cladd aluminums worth as scrap

SelfContract

There are two ways to re-sell copper market:

1) First is online or personal ads or Pawn shops, etc:

For an example, I found a web site of a scrap yard owner trying to sell back online:

http://www.landofodds.com/servlet/Categories?category=WIRE+RAW+COPPER

Example: Copper Wire, Round, 12 gauge, Dead Soft, (1 pound - approx. 50 ft)
SKU: 710612.CP10R
PRICE: $25.95

So taking an example, he pays like $106 for those 40 lbs (or
2000ft/50 cited from the article above) bought at $2.65/lbs, then resell for $1038 for those 40 lbs (2000/50ft) sold at $25.95, (assuming 12-guage copper wires example above)

Total cash profits = $1038 - $106 = $932!

Of course, there are many more stolen copper deals he made per month besides that.


2) Second way is selling pure copper back to Electrical Wire Manufacturing companies for melting, recycling into new wires with new sheathing:

For example, here is web site citing $4 per lbs trends

http://seekingalpha.com/article/45390-copper-to-peak-near-4-per-pound-this-fall-as-chinese-demand-remains-steady

So the scrap yard owner will make ($4 - $2.65) X 40lbs = $54. (very small profits compared to sell for individuals online so he prefers to stick with online/shop methods then)

Magnettica

I could do a google search for Hudson street but just for conversation... where is Hudson street?

I have to imagine this was an inside job as previously mentioned.

Hudson county?

C'mon... of course it was an inside job.

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Celtic

Come on Dude..
You KNOW where that is...remember Maxwell Coffee ...that's the 1100 block-ish.(Biancomono's is there at 1116 Washington St)

The PD is at 106.

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Magnettica

I don't know much about Hoboken. I was working at an office building right on the water right before the New Year though. I'll have to do a search for it.

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Magnettica

Alright, now I see where it is. I don't know the area too well, (yet). I grew up in Westfield and now I live in Rahway. Hudson County is like another country as far as I'm concerned.

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Celtic

My bad...I thought from previous discussions you were familiar with the area.

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jrclen

I read about a husband and wife team last fall who were stealing poco conductors off the rural poles. He would climb pole A and cut the 7.2K wire. Then climb pole B and cut it there. Then his wife would coil it up and put it in the truck while he climbed pole C. She got mixed up and grabbed the live one he just dropped. Killed her grave yard dead on the spot. What a way to make a buck.

Teetorbilt

Here, they usually wait until the appliances are in and then steal them. Less work and more $$$

I guess that our crooks are smarter than your crooks.

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