copper thefts

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electricalist said:
Often these thefts ate done with enough intelligence that the customer look at the electrician there to fix it like , " Its one of your kind that did this not a crack head."
In one situation we replaced some feeders and it was stolen again. The second time we replaced it we were glared at and watched the whole time we were there. The thief came back. He had tied something to the dock leveler so he could release it from outside the bldg and crawl in .
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yep. it's not a crackhead with rubbermaid gloves and pruning shears cutting out live 480.....

i've replaced stuff that was obviously stolen by a sparky. the oddest one was 1,000' of 500 MCM
that disappeared off a roof.... when i got up there, the 90's at each end of the run had been cut
and the stuff pulled out and rolled up and dropped off the roof.... and they left a wire behind, only
took three wires, and didn't just drag them off behind a truck, but carefully rolled them up to protect
the insulation.

they didn't take the fourth wire 'cause they were only pulling three phase on THEIR job, and didn't need it.

nothing else makes sense.
 
Had it happen here, pulled it right out of the transformer and even stole the POCO's fuses.

The POCO guys were pretty impressed with whoever took it.

Here the lines that the POCO use have a steel strand in them so if you take them and try to recycle them you'll get caught when they do the magnet test at the recycle yard.

The thievery around here of recyclables has gotten so bad the our local recycling plant won't even take scrap metal right now, just cans, glass, and plastic.
 
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cowboyjwc said:
The thievery around here of recyclables has gotten so bad the our local recycling plant won't even take scrap metal right now, just cans, glass, and plastic.
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I'm glad someone is taking a stand. Around here the copper thefts got so bad they were stealing the copper ingots directly from the smelters at the copper mines. Now, you got to imagine these ingots are four feet tall and four feet wide and weigh nearly 900 pounds. Yet the thieves apparently didn't have any trouble selling them.
 
Timbert said:
I'm glad someone is taking a stand. Around here the copper thefts got so bad they were stealing the copper ingots directly from the smelters at the copper mines. Now, you got to imagine these ingots are four feet tall and four feet wide and weigh nearly 900 pounds. Yet the thieves apparently didn't have any trouble selling them.
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Isn't that amazing? They were stealing the brass flower holders and plaques from the cemeteries around here and the recycle places must have been taking them, unless the bad guys were melting them down first. I just always figured that if you were gonna work that hard at something, it might as well be an honest job.
 
cowboyjwc said:
Had it happen here, pulled it right out of the transformer and even stole the POCO's fuses.

The POCO guys were pretty impressed with whoever took it.

Here the lines that the POCO use have a steel strand in them so if you take them and try to recycle them you'll get caught when they do the magnet test at the recycle yard.

The thievery around here of recyclables has gotten so bad the our local recycling plant won't even take scrap metal right now, just cans, glass, and plastic.
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Sorry if I misunderstand, but there is a huge difference between a local drop off for recyclables and a serious scrap metal recycling operation, that accepts anything from a single can to a tractor trailer piled with metal. You don't usually take large lots of copper, aluminum or even steel to a local drop off, and you generally don't receive payment for much of anything brought to such a place - aluminum cans are about the only exception but is often limited to just cans and not aluminum in general - and maybe car batteries sometimes.

The steel strand in ACSR will not be rejected at any places I have been to, but would put you into a different grade of materials with different price paid on that commodity. Though POCO's are the main place that would handle ACSR, that doesn't mean they are the only ones that may have access to it.

They do take fingerprint of the seller, most likely have video surveillance of activity when this material was unloaded so if an investigation should warrant looking into it they can help law enforcement. Them purchasing scrap is not illegal, they just pay for what is delivered, and if they know there is steel within a lot of copper or aluminum they deduct from sale price accordingly, if seller doesn't like the price offered they don't have to sell it and can take it somewhere else. How the seller obtained the scrap is what may be illegal.
 
kwired said:
Sorry if I misunderstand, but there is a huge difference between a local drop off for recyclables and a serious scrap metal recycling operation, that accepts anything from a single can to a tractor trailer piled with metal. You don't usually take large lots of copper, aluminum or even steel to a local drop off, and you generally don't receive payment for much of anything brought to such a place - aluminum cans are about the only exception but is often limited to just cans and not aluminum in general - and maybe car batteries sometimes.

The steel strand in ACSR will not be rejected at any places I have been to, but would put you into a different grade of materials with different price paid on that commodity. Though POCO's are the main place that would handle ACSR, that doesn't mean they are the only ones that may have access to it.

They do take fingerprint of the seller, most likely have video surveillance of activity when this material was unloaded so if an investigation should warrant looking into it they can help law enforcement. Them purchasing scrap is not illegal, they just pay for what is delivered, and if they know there is steel within a lot of copper or aluminum they deduct from sale price accordingly, if seller doesn't like the price offered they don't have to sell it and can take it somewhere else. How the seller obtained the scrap is what may be illegal.
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Yep you misunderstand, this is a large recycle plant. They do well enough with what they take in that they just don't want the hassle. I have to go over the hill to another town if I want to get rid of scrap metal. Still won't take the ACSR as about the only one around here who uses it is the POCO and they don't recycle. It was getting so bad, guys were trying to recycle man hole cover with LADWP (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) stamped on it.
 
cowboyjwc said:
Yep you misunderstand, this is a large recycle plant. They do well enough with what they take in that they just don't want the hassle. I have to go over the hill to another town if I want to get rid of scrap metal. Still won't take the ACSR as about the only one around here who uses it is the POCO and they don't recycle. It was getting so bad, guys were trying to recycle man hole cover with LADWP (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) stamped on it.
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Maybe some difference in recycling operations in your area from my area as well here. The places you take metal around here only take metal - no plastic or glass. Even the "community recycling stations" are having a hard time finding sources to take some items and only accept certain types of plastics or glass - all based on what they can find for a place to get rid of it. I once brought in some corrugated cardboard, they didn't want it at that time as the place they had been taking it to cut off any contract they had with them:(

Since then I am a little less green with recyclables - sorry but if these people want to "save the environment" I'm not stockpiling this stuff until someone is willing to take it, I stockpile enough as it is before I get a chance to sort through things to decide what needs to go. At least the metals that accumulate do pay you back some when you do get rid of them.

Over the hill to the next town sounds pretty inconvenient - I need to haul my scrap metal 40 miles or have some scrap buyer come pick it up, which if you are busy with enough other things may still be worth it even though they are going to take some of the proceeds. If you want to be generous, in recent years we had a local church youth group picking up scrap metal and hauling it away - with the expectation they get to keep the proceeds as part of a fundraiser for them. They mostly took away iron/steel items and even entire cars, but would probably have liked a good sized pile of scrap copper.
 
A couple of stories I've seen in the local paper:

The power company had someone steal tools and cable from inside a fenced in area in one of their substations. I forgot exactly how much they said the stolen items were worth, but if I remember right, it was worth well over $100,000. Maybe even a million.

But the best one - a small town nearby had a water tower stolen. That's right - a water tower.

Apparently, it was a new water tower sitting on a trailer waiting to be assembled and erected. The thief just stole the trailer and all.

It didn't take the authorities long to catch the thief - they found the trailer hidden in the woods on his property. The thief actually owned a scrap yard. Of course the tower had been chopped up into smaller pieces and destroyed by the time they found it.
 
steve66 said:
A couple of stories I've seen in the local paper:

The power company had someone steal tools and cable from inside a fenced in area in one of their substations. I forgot exactly how much they said the stolen items were worth, but if I remember right, it was worth well over $100,000. Maybe even a million.

But the best one - a small town nearby had a water tower stolen. That's right - a water tower.

Apparently, it was a new water tower sitting on a trailer waiting to be assembled and erected. The thief just stole the trailer and all.

It didn't take the authorities long to catch the thief - they found the trailer hidden in the woods on his property. The thief actually owned a scrap yard. Of course the tower had been chopped up into smaller pieces and destroyed by the time they found it.
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shoulda chopped up the trailer as well... maybe he needed it for more scrap collecting. not every doner supplies a trailer like that... it is a thoughtful touch, i will admit.
 
cowboyjwc said:
Had it happen here, pulled it right out of the transformer and even stole the POCO's fuses.

The POCO guys were pretty impressed with whoever took it.

Here the lines that the POCO use have a steel strand in them so if you take them and try to recycle them you'll get caught when they do the magnet test at the recycle yard.

The thievery around here of recyclables has gotten so bad the our local recycling plant won't even take scrap metal right now, just cans, glass, and plastic.
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the irony is, at the recycler i use, they will issue a check, or provide cash, in $100 bills. you can walk in there
with any amount up to $200,000 in scrap, and they can give cash on the spot. if you need cash for more than
$200k, you have to call ahead first, and see if they have the funds on hand. i was kinda stunned, and asked the
teller how much cash they *did* keep on hand... he said it depended on the facility, but usually between
$300k and $500k.

you can come in with $30,000 worth of stripped wire, and they don't even blink.... "will that be cash, or check?"
 
John120/240 said:
OK Just don't deposit all $30,000 at the bank in one transaction. Cash transactions of $10,000 or more & the bank fills out a "W something form".
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If you make a habit of depositing large amount of cash they will flag you in time..
 
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