People will take anything!

cewtwo · #1 (**permalink**) 07-09-2007, 07:49 PM

I spent saturday at my office. Why? Somebody took the 50 pair cable that runs the phone system from the demark to where it comes in to the phone room. They got $25 worth of copper and I got a $500 bill and several hours of extra work. Great reason to keep a vendor listing of comapnies that care for their customers!

What holiday fun!

90Xjay · #2 (**permalink**) 07-09-2007, 08:02 PM

Thieves are steeling copper tubing from the A/C systems of new homes while they are still under construction here.

TwistedCopper · #3 (**permalink**) 07-09-2007, 09:24 PM

I doubt they even got $25 worth of cable unless they actually used it for telephone work. For scrap wire telephone wire is pretty much worthless because it is such a small gauge and much of the weight is insulation.

I have made a slew of OT for such things back when I used to work in the maintenance department. Sure does suck for the subscriber

JeepMonkey · #4 (**permalink**) 07-09-2007, 09:28 PM

All of our recycling centers here in the central valley have stopped taking copper material because of the high rate of theft to the farming/agricultural guys.

jay79cj7 · #5 (**permalink**) 07-09-2007, 10:02 PM

A buddy of mine owns a place in the city that he rents. It was vacant for a few weeks and some crack heads broke in and stole all the copper piping out of the walls! The idiots didn't even turn off the water. He found out b/c the city called to tell him his house was flooding the street!

cewtwo · #6 (**permalink**) 07-10-2007, 02:22 PM

I've found out that the same was true of construction sites here. They are well monitores now, so these 'people' need to go elsewhere. That's why we got hit.

The phone tech suggested putting a fake cable up in place of the other one. As they can only get smaller diameter cable in lengths about 8" long after our reinstall, we opted not to. I am going to fabricate a sheet metal box to cover the outside phone system now...

Sparky-Watts · #7 (**permalink**) 07-10-2007, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cewtwo

I've found out that the same was true of construction sites here. They are well monitores now, so these 'people' need to go elsewhere. That's why we got hit.

The phone tech suggested putting a fake cable up in place of the other one. As they can only get smaller diameter cable in lengths about 8" long after our reinstall, we opted not to. I am going to fabricate a sheet metal box to cover the outside phone system now...

Better reconsider the sheet metal and make it 1/4" steel. Those meth heads are the ones doing most of it, and sheet metal won't stop them. I've got some friends with WPD and they have tons of stories about what the tweakers will do to get at copper pipes, wires, plating, etc. to sell for meth. Several months ago, they tried to steal the wiring out of a large warehouse. They didn't get far because the power was still on. PD found a pair of large wire cutters welded to a 40,000 volt main where they had tried to cut it to steal it. No body was found, so they figure the guy must've lived through it, but would almost certainly have to have had help getting away after that jolt.

Saurian · #8 (**permalink**) 07-10-2007, 07:25 PM

It's been bad up here around Detroit... Desperate people with no money or job stealing anything, bolted down or not... Someone tried to get the wiring from the inside of a transformer on a primary a couple weeks ago, that was on the news... Knocked out power for several blocks in that area, and you can guess what happened to him...