I am behind the times

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Apparently there is a market for these

Folks steal have units that often
http://www.cageitup.com/

[Firethorn]

Apparently there is a market for these

Folks steal have units that often
http://www.cageitup.com/

It's a BIG deal down in Florida.  The tweakers want the copper.  It's almost bad enough for the state to issue 'shoot on sight' orders.   

[RevDisk]

It's a BIG deal down in Florida.  The tweakers want the copper.  It's almost bad enough for the state to issue 'shoot on sight' orders.   

I'm usually not a huge fan of government intervention, but I'd say requiring scrap dealers to require ID and pay by named check would be a significant help there.

Seriously, addicts are causing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to get maybe a hundred bucks worth of copper.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

They get id here. There is one scrap yard that hires girls to work out front. It's in air conditioned and the girls dress for comfort. There is a line often. The cops work the line in the afternoon for addicts

[MechAg94]

They require ID here also. 

I asked a guy here at work about the cages since I hadnt noticed them.  He said that everyone was putting them on.  New construction, they come with the unit almost. 

[Ben]

It's a BIG deal down in Florida.  The tweakers want the copper.  It's almost bad enough for the state to issue 'shoot on sight' orders.   

If I lived in FL and somebody stole my HVAC in August, I'd be looking to shoot on sight too.

[Boomhauer]

I'm usually not a huge fan of government intervention, but I'd say requiring scrap dealers to require ID and pay by named check would be a significant help there.

Seriously, addicts are causing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to get maybe a hundred bucks worth of copper.

ID laws and such don't help one damn bit when the scrap dealer is as crooked as the thieves.


I know a guy who's getting lots of work to build HVAC unit cages particularly in rental units.


There is one thing and one thing only that will help with the tweaker epidemic- shooting them in the face. Currently the law doesn't allow for that, plus when you DO catch them and send them to jail it's like a damned revolving door, they are right out again. They are useless wastes of oxygen once their brain is meth fried, so you might as well just shoot them, it's the best thing for everybody concerned.

Trust me, I've dealt far too much with them and the issues they cause...

[lupinus]

ID laws and such don't help one damn bit when the scrap dealer is as crooked as the thieves.


I know a guy who's getting lots of work to build HVAC unit cages particularly in rental units.


There is one thing and one thing only that will help with the tweaker epidemic- shooting them in the face. Currently the law doesn't allow for that, plus when you DO catch them and send them to jail it's like a damned revolving door, they are right out again. They are useless wastes of oxygen once their brain is meth fried, so you might as well just shoot them, it's the best thing for everybody concerned.

Trust me, I've dealt far too much with them and the issues they cause...

That's our Boomhauer...

[never_retreat]

There was a quick check (nj convenience store chain) across the street from the local high school.
Kids used to overrun the place after school. Shoplifting and all that good stuff. Managers would throw them out for loitering.
They then would go outside and flip over the condensers for the walk ins. Service guys bolted them down to ground, kids smashed them.
Store closed. Empty for a few years. 7-11 moves into about a quarter of the space. Put them all on the roof.

Some tweekers did learn the hard way trying to steel one from behind the hospital. Yep should have turned off the disconnect. You know that big gray thing that says on/off.

[lupinus]

I miss Quick Check....

[Cliffh]

One of the local recyclers almost didn't take the unit that had been left under the house we bought.  Guess I didn't look "tweaked" enough,he did take it, with a warning it would be the only one I could recycle there.

[brimic]

Heck, even manufacturers have their metals stolen.
I have family members that work in factories where entire spools of rolled steel weighing several tons have disappeared off the docks- its always traced to an employee with the help of an outsider.

[slugcatcher]

Theives have stolen the units from a church my wife's aunt and uncle attend.  After it was stolen the first time they used something like these and a 6ft fence.  They just hooked up a chain and pulled everything out of the concrete the second time. 

It always amazes me how much effort criminals will put into committing crimes with so little reward but will not work an honest job.

[230RN]

It always amazes me how much effort criminals will put into committing crimes with so little reward but will not work an honest job.

^ Truth.

I just learned recently that during a hot water outage last summer that thieves had got into the service basement in our apartment building somehow and took out most of the installed copper in the furnace room (which is accessed through  a locked door in the laundry.)

I had noticed the extra security on that locked door and asked about it, because as far as I know, there's no reason for residents to go in there, so WTF?

I also noticed a couple of months ago that they had gone around and put deadbolts on all the first-floor apartments. (I already had one on my second-floor apartment.)

Terry

[never_retreat]

The scrap yards are as crooked as the tweekers for the most part.
I took a load of light iron in one time. They would not take 2 5' lengths of rr track.
Guy says we can't take anything that looks like rr property. Huh? The two pieces were buried for at least a 100 years and looked like it.
I ran into them installing a storm drain in the office parking lot. Had no idea they were under the driveway and had no idea where they ran to. I just cut them out of the way to cross the path.

At the same time there are 2 shady looking creatures unloading 2 brand new aluminum lamp posts off the roof of an s-10. No problem with them?

[RoadKingLarry]

The "copper" thieves ain't always the brightest crayons in the box either. About 6 months ago we had 2 miles of rural aerial fiber optic line stolen. 2 months later it was stolen again.
My bet is that it was the same guys.

[brimic]

They would not take 2 5' lengths of rr track.
Guy says we can't take anything that looks like rr property. Huh? The two pieces were buried for at least a 100 years and looked like it.

Yep. You have to have paperwork from the railroad to prove that the pieces of track/spikes/other pieces belong to you. I think there are some federal laws involved that came into being since 9/11 on top of that. I have a 3' length of heavy gauge rail I stand upright to use as an anvil occasionally- I got that from a railroad employee that I know. I told him that I was eyeballing a chunk of old rail on top of the pile of replaced old rail in my village, he told me something along the lines of "you really don't want to mess with that, you can get into a lot of hot water fast."

Chop it up into 1-2' lengths and sell them on ebay 

[KD5NRH]

The "copper" thieves ain't always the brightest crayons in the box either. About 6 months ago we had 2 miles of rural aerial fiber optic line stolen. 2 months later it was stolen again.
My bet is that it was the same guys.

Entertaining thoughts of old rope and copper metallic spray paint keep crossing my mind.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Rail road track will get you in trouble if you buy it one local scrap yard got jacked up for it


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[230RN]

Gee whiz, the welding instructor of a class I took 30-40 years ago had cut up rails he'd give to students to make anvils out of.

I always found all kinds of good scrap by the railroad tracks back of my little farmstead and made things out of them in my machine shop.

I think I made parts of a steam engine out of some, and I'm almost positive I made a salute cannon out of a huge bolt I found.

I'm sure the television CSI folks could drop a slice of my anvil in a test tube, swirl it around in some acid, inspect the test tube by holding it up to the light and declare, "Yep, this piece of track was made out of a rail rolled by Rolling Machine #762 on January 14th, 1981, and inspected by James F. Perkins, Social Security Number  078-05-1120.  Go bring in that dirty thieving rascal Terry, boys."

Terry

[KD5NRH]

Folks steal have units that often
http://www.cageitup.com/

I'd be more inclined to rebuild the outer shell out of 3/8" plate, welded down to plates properly anchored in a pad made from all the rubble I could find with a good amount of rebar.  How far can they drive dragging a couple yards of concrete, rock and steel before they attract too much attention?

Then again, I have a low tolerance for thieves, and would generally prefer to see them caught than simply physically deterred. (Which usually just means they go victimize someone else.)

[MechAg94]

We had some good news a while back.  An old CO2 plant near Beaumont, TX was closed down, but we were considering putting a compressor station there and an engineer on the project was stopping by on occasion.  One morning, he pulls up and hears a band saw.  He calls the cops who show up and arrest a couple guys cutting copy out of old cables and transformers.  One is a former employee.  The local cops check the ID records at all the local scrap yards and added up a long list of stuff they were selling.  They ratted out a bunch of accomplices and were prosecuting them all for the total value of everything they sold.  I never heard the final outcome. 

I could be wrong, but I think the cops were trying to crack down on it hear.  If the police don't take an interest, no amount of ID or other laws/rules will matter.