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Login to post Forums » Off-topic discussion » &*%$ing scrap thieves

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Feb. 9, 2010 9:21 a.m. mad_machine PowerDork

I had a bicycle stolen from my yard by a scrap dealer. I know this because it was CABLED to a tree with a half inch diameter aircraft grade cable (it had been kinked and was no longer safe for rigging) and a very sturdy padlock my harley riding uncle gave me.

The reason I know it was a scrap dealer... the bike, cable, AND lock all disappeared.. which sucked as my car was in the midst of a transmission replacement and I had no way to get back and forth to work (two miles) except for walking after that
Feb. 9, 2010 10:09 a.m. 16vCorey SuperDork

Yep, there are scrapper-thieves around my neighborhood too. The other day I was cleaning the garage, and came up with 13 old batteries, 3 old starters, and 2 old alternators. The local auto-electric shop is paying $7 for batteries and $6 for starters and alternators (I think). I piles everything up right out the garage door in my back yard, and when I went to load it up, it was all gone. berkeleyers.
Feb. 9, 2010 10:10 a.m. DukeOfUndersteer SuperDork

i remember some scumbag scrappers were stealing man hole covers in one city here in GA...
Feb. 9, 2010 10:24 a.m. Duke SuperDork

Basil Exposition wrote:

No kidding. Setting booby traps for thieves apparently violates their civil rights.

My father used to run self-service carwashes on the side, and the coin boxes kept getting busted into, which took some busting to do. They had about a 5" square, 1/4" steel door to get the money out.

So he rigged up a prototype that would drop a bar to basically handcuff/beartrap anyone unauthorized who stuck their hand in that hole. He showed it to one of the cops responding to yet another burglary call. The cop said "Sir, much as I would love to tell you otherwise, if you catch somebody with that thing you will be in a WORLD of legal hurt."
Feb. 9, 2010 11:14 a.m. GameboyRMH UltraDork

The guys here take spools of electrical cable that's "lying around." coughin poorly secured factory yardscough Offroaders run into illegal dumping sites often, and when you run into a waist-high pile of rubber insulation, you know you've run into one created by a scrap thief.

There's also an area I call the "outdoor department store" FULL of dumped appliances. I guess the scrappers haven't found it yet.
Feb. 9, 2010 1:16 p.m. DILYSI Dave UltimaDork

At a former employer they figured out that a forklift driver had been stealing vacuum forming molds and recycling them. He'd remove it from the machine when told, and put it in his truck rather than in storage. Then recycle. By the time they figured it out, he had recycled 8 molds. Cost the company over $300K to re-tool. He got just shy of $8,000 for them, plus 3-5 years.
Feb. 9, 2010 1:40 p.m. donalson UltraDork

back in 01 or so I was working for Trane making commercial AC units... we had some guys who would pull up in a truck and toss the bad coils (copper tube and alu fins) into the back of the truck... got about $800 out of it before they got snagged
Feb. 9, 2010 1:41 p.m. donalson UltraDork

back in 01 or so I was working for Trane making commercial AC units... we had some guys who would pull up in a truck and toss the bad coils (copper tube and alu fins) into the back of the truck... got about $800 out of it before they got snagged
Feb. 9, 2010 3:55 p.m. spitfirebill Dork

Basil Exposition wrote:

I remember a case where someone set up a shotgun on a string and got arrested when someone tried to break into the premises and got shot. I don't remember the outcome, but I think he was convicted. Either that or he was successfully sued by the "victim."

IIRC that was about the first case ever. Yes he was sued and lost.
Feb. 9, 2010 4:07 p.m. cwh SuperDork

A number of years ago, a storeowner in a really bad part of Miami had been getting broken into repeatedly. He rigged up bare 120vac wires across the transom above his entry door, where the thieves were entering. Fried a guy. He was arrested, charged with voluntary manslaughter, found innocent. He was later a parade marshal. Local hero.
Feb. 9, 2010 5:31 p.m. wbjones HalfDork

I guess it depends on where you are , who you are , and who you kill
Feb. 9, 2010 5:52 p.m. M2Pilot New Reader

wbjones wrote:

I guess it depends on where you are , who you are , and who you kill

Yeah, a lot of things are like that.
Feb. 9, 2010 9:37 p.m. 64chrysler300 New Reader

Back in the mid '70s my Dad would bring home empty 5 gl traffic paint cans. Once filled with "used dog food", he would crimp the lid shut and set it out on the curb with that weeks trash for pick up. Worked pretty well.......until the trash pickers started coming around. They saw that newish looking can of bright red traffic paint, tossed it in the bed of their truck along with everything else they scavenged..........

That's when the lid came off. .

They didn't come back for quite a while
Feb. 9, 2010 9:37 p.m. psteav Reader

General idea on the stuff like that is that using deadly force is only appropriate to defend your (or someone else's) life. Potentially killing someone over property, no matter how expensive the property or how scummy the life of the person, is overkill.

The case that everybody is talking about is one where a farmer owned an empty house where he stored things, but that was unoccupied. The house got burglarized a couple of times, and he rigged a spring gun--basically a shotgun pointed at the door of the house. Sure enough, a burglar entered and got his leg blown off at the knee. He did survive, but he sued for damages and won.

Now if the house had been occupied, it (probably) would have been a whole different story.
Feb. 9, 2010 10:03 p.m. shadetree30 Dork

porksboy wrote:

Are scrap metal yards required to act the same way pawn shops do?
Dunno about pawn shops but the yards around here began taking drivers' license info especially if you brought in electrical cable, cats, copper pipe, etc.

People were stealing copper pipe from houses, not necessarily abandoned, and in at least one instance electrical cable from an abandoned warehouse; except the power wasn't turned off. That didn't end well.
Feb. 9, 2010 10:51 p.m. Opus Dork

On construction sites in so cal, the first suspect for a theft is the Security company you are using. Turns out that they like to hire those that are recently out of jail.

Love Construction.
Feb. 10, 2010 9:53 p.m. Trans_Maro HalfDork

In reply to psteav:

You're talking about thieves.

Some tweaker around here was stealing electrical cable. He got the idea to cut a power box off at the ground with a set of bolt cutters.

Apparently they didn't find very much of him when the electricity was done with him.

A real shame too, I bet he was almost about to find the cure for cancer at the bottom of his heroin spoon.

Shawn
Feb. 10, 2010 10:16 p.m. pigeon HalfDork

Timely and topical, in today's Buffalo News:

"Three vehicles were vandalized at Buffalo Landscape & Irrigation on Dingens Street overnight Tuesday, Buffalo police said. Police said that between noon Monday and 10:30 a. m. Tuesday, catalytic converters were cut from the vehicles, which were parked in a fenced area behind the business."

I guess the tweakers are getting resourceful/desperate.
Feb. 11, 2010 12:48 a.m. BAMF Reader

Our work truck was stolen about a year and a half ago. The folks who stole it then used it to gather scrap. We eventually got it back, with all sorts of copper bits in the bed. Several months later, a scrap recycling place opened up 2 doors down from our studio. Turns out that in Kansas City you have to go through some very specific permitting to recycle anything other than cans. This guy didn't get that stuff, and got shut down. We breathed a sigh of relief on that one. The neighborhood isn't great (a mix of residential and light industrial), but that wasn't helping and was attracting shadier characters than usual.
Feb. 11, 2010 11:01 a.m. 93celicaGT2 UltraDork

Wasn't there a news story a couple months ago about a group of scrappers that stole a BRIDGE?
Feb. 11, 2010 2:28 p.m. Trans_Maro HalfDork

A city near me put up new football goalposts in all the fields, they were aluminum, made to replace the wooden ones.

Within a week the jawas were out with a cordless sawzall felling the new goalposts like trees.

Shawn
Feb. 11, 2010 10:44 p.m. psteav Reader

In reply to Trans_Maro:

Yeah, I'm talking about thieves. What exactly made you think I was sympathizing with them? I was stating what the law is. I didn't say a thing about my personal views.
Feb. 17, 2010 2:10 a.m. 4eyes Reader

See zombies do exist
Feb. 17, 2010 11:08 a.m. mad_machine PowerDork

Just heard from a friend of mine... the business I used to work at, a theatrical rental place, lost about 20 25' Aluminum I beams off of a job site. the thieves pushed the decks right off and made off with the aluminum.
Feb. 22, 2010 4:27 p.m. Cone_Junky New Reader

In reply to skruffy:

My shop would appreciate a free emptying of our used oil tank. Not only do we have to pay to get it collected, CA makes us collect waste fluids for free from the public. Of course they charge us employees for "waste fees" when change our oil there...

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