Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse 2 in Oklahoma accused of toppling country radio station tower to steal $100 in copper | Fox News Destroy a $500K radio tower for a $100 worth of copper 'scrap'. For the society circling the drain, the spin just got faster.... One of the Valedictorians
This crap is not going to end until the story adds: "Some (or all) the thieves caught in the act, died in a hail of gunfire". It is going to get worse, even now substations are under attack; Man Stealing Copper Is Electrocuted - YouTube
A few years back , copper and scrap metal thievery was a pretty constant problem,, I think it was mostly crackheads, dopeheads ,, whichever ,, but there was a church in the area that had copper gutters and downspouts on it . I think their downspouts were snatched off the side of the building 2 or 3 times , before the church just decided to put the cheap aluminum ones on to save money. I don't have much sympathy for thieves ,, it's hard to feel bad for them for their stupid actions .
This kind of thing has been going on for a very long time! Years ago, we had an old Bi-Mart store that had been shut down and left un-used for years! One night, a couple thieves show up with an old 70's 4X4 truck and hooked on to the wiring harness with the truck and yanked all the wiring out. they came back the next night and tried to get up on the roof to go after all the HVAC stuff, only problem was, when they had yanked all the wiring the night before, they had damaged the building pretty extensively, so the next night up on the roof, at least 5 dudes fell to their death through the roof. That crazy part was, it took several weeks before anyone noticed anything, an old beat up pickup kind of fit the scene, so nobody thought any different of things till the smell hit! It was still many more days before the Cops decided they were tired of complaints of the worsening smell, and decided to check it out! Buy howdy what a mess! Another one, same sort of business closed down, but the crooks were mush quicker at getting at it, only problem was, nobody thought to check to see if the power was off before trying to hook up to it, and BAM, instant fried chicken all down the line where it hit the truck it was being hooked to which also got cooked real good, NASTY NASTY scene! The problem is, the metal recycling yards do not do a good job of vetting people attempting to turn in metals, and the criminals know which ones are easier, so I blame them first! See one where a couple Hispanics broke into Freightliners Factory storage yard where they keep all the new built trucks, and in one night, the crooks made off with over a hundred grand worth of alloy wheels stolen off the trucks, not to mention the tires and other alloy accessories they could un do and yard out, security footage showed some old ass box truck being used! They tracked it all through several yards until they finally found a yard who accepted all the alloy and paid them the going rate, BAM, instant arrests and a pretty good investigation to track down the thieves, which all got arrested and tossed on the klink for 5 years each, grand theft auto! If only the recycling yards would stop accepting stuff from un vetted people, this wouldn't be a issue,, but as we see, it very much is!
Scrap yards and pawn shops promote thievery. I know for a fact that our nearest scrap yard was putting copper purchases under a friend of mines account (that was licensed to sell it as an HVAC dealer) because he saw the computer screen that said he had turned in $94,000.00 in copper in 2022. In reality he had sold about $1200.00 worth. He called the cops but the yard just claimed it to be a clerical error.
In SC other than aluminum cans you have to get a permit to take other metals to scrape yards, Had cans and old alloy rims and aluminum boat gas tank needed a permit
I saw the radio station story, and loved the fact that while the station said it was a few hundred bucks of copper, the police were like, "HELL NO!", and started laying out all the expenses. Replacement of the copper was the least amount!
In NC we just smile for the camera just like that clown. They get your license number and DL number as well. Does it help? Maybe. What's worse than the scrap yards is the stuff that gets brought into pawn shops.
Don't forget to add the labor in. To replace an antenna @ 660 ft cost $8000...now add in the hardline, hardware installation, FAA lighting....well, it adds up real quick.
Approaching the million mark when lost revenue is factored in.It's going to take a while because all the tower crews are short of help now that repack is finished.
Only if they know the recycler is a dodgy dealer operating black market style...otherwise they as unwitting as the victims whose metal was stolen.
Here in California when you take things to the recycler, they verify your address and driver's license,
But what about ALL of the minorities that haven't got a driver's license? Also, what about homeless people have no address? THAT IS RACISM AND DESCRIMATION!
