Here's a strange one ....

[kbsparky]

We got a call from a customer complaining about some circuits not working in their house. Here are some background details:

This particular house was foreclosured on several months ago, and was left vacant.

The customer recenly bought the house from the bank, and had things inspected and checked out before going to settlement, which was held around June 9.

The next day (June 10), the customer goes out to their newly acquired house, and finds that the power is out. Upon investigation, it appears that someone has stolen the power company meter!

The cops are called, reports are filed, and they finally get the power company to install a new meter. They also install a security lock, preventing anyone from pulling the new one out without the proper tool.

Now, the homeowner discovers that several circuits seem to be inoperative.

That's where we come in.

In troubleshooting this problem, the wiring devices all appear to be in good condition, yet there seems to be a lack of continuity from one outlet to the next in the same room. Finally, an investigation of the wiring underneath the floor in the crawl space is warranted.

It was discovered that several lines were cut and sections of the wiring removed in the crawl space area. Now the pieces of the puzzle seem to fit: The meter thieves were actually copper thieves, and stealing the meter was the means by which they were assured that the power was disconnected before they commited their acts of vandalism and thievery.

The funny part of this story is that this was a very tight crawl space, and whoever did this had to do extensive crawling around pipes and ductwork to get to the area where the wiring was cut/removed. They left large sections of several circuits intact, only taking small chunks out of the middle of each run from the same general area of the crawl space.

So now we are faced with restoring the wiring in this house, but since there will be a permit and inspection, more circuits will have to be installed in order to comply with the Code.

Some bedroom receptacles were on the same line as some kitchen outlets (not permissible these days), and the water pump can no longer be installed on the same line as the small appliances. What once was on the same circuit will now have to be separated into at least 3 different circuits.

 

[zbang]

I think the more likely culpret is the former owner. Few copper thieves are going to crawl under dicts do steal just a little wire, they'll take what's easy. OTOH, owners being foreclosed on have been known to "wreck" the house in subtle ways before leaving, since they think the bank will have to fix things.

I'm curious, when did these circuits last work?

 

[peter d]

All that for probably $20 worth of scrap romex. Amazing.

It's now pretty common for foreclosed houses to be listed as "no copper, boiler, or wiring" around here. The plumbing is easy to replace - use pex or CPVC and the theft temptation disappears. But no one has figured out non-metallic conductors yet so they are still easy targets.

The newspaper had an article about this recently and they included a picture of a foreclosed home where someone actually spray painted "COPPER IS GONE" right on the foundation to deter more breaks in to the building.

 

[kbsparky]

Those circuits worked fine the day of settlement. The meter was stolen that night.

As to the former owners, they have been out of the picture for months. All the negotiations were done with the bank, the house has been vacant since last year sometime.

 

[cadpoint]

They are steal'n whole outdoor a/c units and grates in the street. NC has a state law that the scrap yard can only except 30 lb's of copper or less at a time otherwise a company letterhead, stating what going on...

 

[brantmacga]

I was working in a neighborhood once that had a lot of theft going on. On a saturday, a couple down the street arrived to start moving into their new home, but the lights wouldn't come on. In fact, nothing worked. Someone went up on the attic to look around; the house was broken into apparently the night before and stole all of the copper out of the attic. They cut every circuit at the top plate. I felt pretty bad for that couple. I'd much rather get hit at the rough-in.

 

[quogueelectric]

Recently had to rewire a foreclosure homeowner cut all copper out of basement and turned on water main which flooded house all the way to first floor.
This was a different house than the last one which flooded when the abandoned house froze over the winter.
The new owner was too cheap so I got paid for what I did then walked till he found annother sucker.

 

[DanZ]

I was working on designs for a church about 3 years ago. It wasn't in a great neighborhood. Between the morning and noon services, copper thieves had stolen the A/C condensers! They had new ones put in, and put anti theft cages around them. A few weeks later, they stole the cages and the A/C condensers! This is the same job where some one wandered into the building on the construction crew's lunch break. It wouldn't have been so bad, if he hadn't been shot...in the parking lot. He somehow managed to get the clip out of the gun too.
The architect I used to work with had an HVAC contractor install the condensers for a large apartment complex. A few nights later, they vanished. They got some new ones installed, and everyone went about their business. Then, on the next set of apartments, new HVAC units arrived at the site, and their serial numbers were recorded. Someone did some back checking, since it looked like these had been installed before, and sure enough. Their serial numbers matched the serial numbers of the units that were stolen from the first building! That HVAC contractor was forced off site, and is no longer in business.

It's weird out there, and it's only getting weirder.