The price of metal

[110240]

There was an incident at work today when some pikeys (sp?) tried to steal a few tonnes of metal which I had split down off a couple of my disused boat moulds. We're in the process of moving the business to N. America so it seems sensible to get rid of any junk and save on storage.

They tried to steal it from out the front of my unit whilst I was on the 'phone inside the unit. I came out just in time to stop them from stealing it though.

As they had already loaded some of the metal, I said to them that if they took the moulds too (made from glass reinforced plastic and destined for a 40 foot skip) they could have the metal for 30 quid.

One of them got out a sledgehammer, to which I said "your want to watch out you'll probably make a bigger hole in you than the mould" he told me he had "irish arms" and proceeded to bounce off the mould three times nearly missing his head and not even make a mark on it. It was absolutely hilarious!

Anyway, then I told them to give me my metal back and p*** off and they left.

I got 149 quid for about a ton and half of metal, not bad. Lead is currently about a pound a kilo at the scrap yard!

Later on the news I heard that because the price of metal is so high people are thieving it - even man-hole covers and churches are not safe any more it seems.

Is Texas having any problems like this?

[Steelsun]

Yep - we've had power lines stolen, storm drains, etc.

I've participated in 2 big investigations:
1) Special heat resistant metals used in high temp turbines were stolen to be sold as scrap - resale value was in excess of $100 a pound due to the special alloys (of course the parts stolen were worth 10x the scrap value and were new)
2) a school under renovation had all the wiring that was being replaced stolen. The replaced wiring was to be sold by the contractors and it's ownership by them was part of the bid price. They lost at least $100K on that.

[Steelsun]

Oh, and A/C units are being stolen for the sale of the lead and copper coils.

[Jeff_Green]

Originally Posted by Steelsun

Oh, and A/C units are being stolen for the sale of the lead and copper coils.

I went out, with a friend, to a church in Duncanville that got hit by thieves. They cut the power line going TO the meter (you can't turn that off by removing the meter), stole all the wire, gutted the meter, broke into the building, stole wire from the electrical room, stole the conduit. They got on the roof and ripped all the condensers out of the A/C units (8 in all).

Probably looking at $50,000 minimum in damage for maybe a couple hundred dollars in scrap.

[Steelsun]

Yep - That happened to St Arnolds here in Houston - a Texas Microbrew. They got on the roof and took everything they could.

[LDB]

There aren't nearly enough public executions anymore.

[Damon]

Originally Posted by LDB

There aren't nearly enough public executions anymore.

But at least here in Texas, if someone's stealing your stuff, you can shoot 'em. People just don't practice that right often enough.

[Truckman]

Originally Posted by Damon

But at least here in Texas, if someone's stealing your stuff, you can shoot 'em. People just don't practice that right often enough.

It got practiced again yesterday here in Montgomery County...Third one this year...Ben

[110240]

In the England also... But it's only ok to shoot thieves in the face. Anywhere on the back of the body is frowned upon in the courts. There was a case few years back, quite controversial really, in which a farmer shot a burglar as he was running away. Not only did he end up in prison, he was also sued by the burglar!

[CarolynM]

Originally Posted by Steelsun

Oh, and A/C units are being stolen for the sale of the lead and copper coils.

Now the thieves have even been stealing wires off of telephone poles and selling the metal, meanwhile disrupting phone service (and internet for dial up customers) to the whole subdivision (or larger area) until the phone companies can get their wiring replaced. Fortunately, in the most recent incident, some of the thieves were caught---used their real name and ID when selling the stolen wiring to the scrap yard.
(It is the law now, in TX, all persons turning in metal for cash must show some form of photo ID are they are fingerprinted by the scrap yard that accepts the metal.)

CarolynM

[MicWayWal]

Originally Posted by CarolynM

Now the thieves have even been stealing wires off of telephone poles and selling the metal, meanwhile disrupting phone service (and internet for dial up customers) to the whole subdivision (or larger area) until the phone companies can get their wiring replaced. Fortunately, in the most recent incident, some of the thieves were caught---used their real name and ID when selling the stolen wiring to the scrap yard.
(It is the law now, in TX, all persons turning in metal for cash must show some form of photo ID are they are fingerprinted by the scrap yard that accepts the metal.)

CarolynM

Couldn't these illegal sales of stolen metals be stopped in a hurry? The thieves should not be able to get cash for their sale of metal. The scrap dealers should be made to pay for scrap with electronic funds transfers to a checking or savings account or mailed, to a legitimate address, a check that has to be deposited into a checking account. This would provide a paper trail to follow and an postal address.

[Jeff_Green]

The homeless guy picking up cans and scrap metal laying in the streets now has to have a checking account?? lol

[Wes]

Originally Posted by Jeff_Green

The homeless guy picking up cans and scrap metal laying in the streets now has to have a checking account?? lol

The rest of us have to pay in one way or another for the criminal activities in our society. Why should the homeless be any exception? Not trying to sound cold or anything, but enacting certain laws or ordinances might have a negative impact on a few, whereas NOT enacting them will have a negative impact on everyone that becomes a victim.

[LDB]

Originally Posted by Damon

But at least here in Texas, if someone's stealing your stuff, you can shoot 'em. People just don't practice that right often enough.

The state should be a whole lot busier doing it in cases where the citizen doesn't get to take care of it.

[LDB]

Originally Posted by Jeff_Green

The homeless guy picking up cans and scrap metal laying in the streets now has to have a checking account?? lol

A little common sense like exempting cans would go a long way. That's way too much to expect though.