Copper Thieves Strike Again

troubleseeker

While topping out our job Thursday, the plumber gets a call from another contractor that someone has reported a water leak problem at a job site. He returns an hour later .. some scum bag went under the house and cut all his lines in the crawl space. Lost about 70' of 1" supply and 80 to 100' of 3/4" branch lines. All sheared off at the floor line with bolt cutters and then twisted off. Of course if anyone really cared (police), it is real difficult to catch these bastards... you would have to go all of 1/2 mile to the neighborhood scrap shop, where there is no less than 25 fine upstanding citizens in line at 7:30 am every morning, with a grocery cart full of mostly shiny copper. DAAAH.

LNG24

I was told by our local scrap yard that they won't take shiny stuff. Then again, they don't call the police either. We had a job we dug for underground electric. The electrician ran the wire and tide it to the BASE of the pole as he didn't have a bucket truck to tie it to the top. I never knew why they did that. Hang all that weight way up there. Well we found out the next day when the line was cut and the roll was missing.

Around here they are cutting gas lines while the gas is on!

neolitic

Don't know where you are....
Here you have to sign and show
a photo ID. The dealer is required
to record all your info and keep it on file.
The yard I go to, your on CCTV as well.
After the cops raided a couple of yards
(one closed down for good) and one operator
got some time, they all got a bit more careful
about what they take in.

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Dustball

Same here, ID required. Also they don't give cash anymore, only checks made out to the name on the ID.