 ke4pym
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC | This has been going on for a long time. We're always reporting on our newscasts about copper being stolen.
The latest trend is to steal catalytic converters from cars. | |
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peter_m
Premium
join:2005-07-13
Canada, QC
2 edits | Re: This has In the province of Quebec (Canada), old churches with old copper roofs are very common. In the last year or two there have been multiple reports of copper roofs being vandalised during the night for the sole purpose to steel the copper. Sad!
Copper is now a valuable commodity. I know someone who was able to get about 1000$ Canadian for 4" copper water pipes. He only had about 100 feet of it! | |
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Derfel
join:2004-06-06
Winnipeg, MB | Incroyable! Uh... that's quite a bit of copper. Any idea what the market value of that would be? | |
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CigaR
Premium
join:2004-08-24 | Re: Incroyable! While the price of copper is on the rise, the price of fibre optics continues to drop in Europe...
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Maurício | |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
 ·Comcast
| said by Derfel  :Uh... that's quite a bit of copper. Any idea what the market value of that would be? Probably nothing... how the heck is anyone going to sell that stuff?
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
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| | backness
join:2005-07-08
K2P OW2
| Re: Incroyable! said by pnh102 :said by Derfel :Uh... that's quite a bit of copper. Any idea what the market value of that would be? Probably nothing... how the heck is anyone going to sell that stuff? salvage yard... they pay by the pound or kilo in europe | |
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kamm
join:2001-02-14
Brooklyn, NY
 ·T-Mobile US
| Re: Incroyable! said by backness :said by pnh102 :said by Derfel :Uh... that's quite a bit of copper. Any idea what the market value of that would be? Probably nothing... how the heck is anyone going to sell that stuff? salvage yard... they pay by the pound or kilo in europe Exactly. And no questions asked, at least it used to be that way. And they take everything, not only metal: paper, clothins, plastic, everything.
It's a more meaningful way to make sure trash doesn't end up somewhere aside the closest interstate exit overnight. When you have a lot of these things you more likely will take it to somewhere you will get some money for it than pay for some "waste management company" to take it away...
I remember when I was a kid there they used to organize weeks when everybody brought all the used papers to the school and then the school got the money. Also I remember few times we found a thrown-away engine part or something similar, very heavy metal piece somewhere and we got some nice bucks (ie movie tickets w/ ice creams for 5 of us or something similar  ) for it... | |
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Michieru2
zzz zzz zzz
Premium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL | He probably does not even need to sell it and sells it at some flee market and slap an RCA logo on it. All you need is the end connectors and you got yourself a new cable. | |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| Re: Incroyable! said by Michieru2 :He probably does not even need to sell it and sells it at some flee market and slap an RCA logo on it. All you need is the end connectors and you got yourself a new cable. True, true... but stealing connectors also increases the risk of getting caught.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
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Michieru2
zzz zzz zzz
Premium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL
| Re: Incroyable! How much a bag of 100 connectors would cost you if you bought them from some large supplier? Probably a mere 4euros and you sell each cable at 8euros.
So if you where able to make 50 cables that would be 200euros and subtract 4 euros for the next bag you need to pay and you got yourself 196euros. | |
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sapo
The Internet is Down
Premium
join:2002-09-16
Sacramento, CA
| Re: Incroyable! What are you talking about... why would you put an RCA plug on that anyway, this is not some cheap Video connection cable that most people have. They are most likely going to sell it by the kilo to whoever.
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Thanks for screwing up the world. | |
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Michieru2
zzz zzz zzz
Premium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL | Re: Incroyable! I said RCA logo, not plug. But yes they can sell it at the kilo it all depends how they do it. | |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| said by Michieru2 :How much a bag of 100 connectors would cost you if you bought them from some large supplier? Probably a mere 4euros and you sell each cable at 8euros. I was thinking along the lines of if someone is going to steal the cable, they'd probably steal the connectors as well. Were a thief to buy such parts legitimately can cut into his/her "profit."
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
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Chuckles
Premium
join:2006-03-04
Saint Paul, MN | They're stealing coax? | |
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Michieru2
zzz zzz zzz
Premium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL | Re: Incroyable! I assume that by copper cable they mean coax. Unless you got a photo illustrating the difference between the two. | |
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| | | | | NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
 ·Pacific Bell - SBC
| Re: Incroyable! said by Michieru2 :I assume that by copper cable they mean coax. Unless you got a photo illustrating the difference between the two. There are two cables running the utility poles behind my house (aside from the electric); cable, and telephone. I am pretty sure that there is more copper in the 25-pair telephone bundle than in the cable TV run, even if the TV was copper coax, though it appears to be fiber on the pole.
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Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum | |
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| | | | | | Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA | Re: Incroyable! You're right that there's not much copper in the coax cables, cablcos use copper coated steel and only back to the fiber node. | |
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payattention
@sbc.com | If you read the article again it says they couldn't make a phone call. So they are referring to telephone cabling. | |
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Michieru2
zzz zzz zzz
Premium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL | Re: Incroyable! yeah yeah, I heard you bob I made a mistake I should of RTFA. | |
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Hall
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-28
Dayton, OH
·EarthLink
·AT&T Midwest
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
| Re: Incroyable! said by N3OGH : Plenty of place one could sell it here in the states too. I recently had some old steel pipe in my basement that I didn't need. I cut it down, and took it to the local scrap yard. They weigh your truck coming in and going out, the difference is how much metal you had. Made about $30 on the deal. I've done the same... As we've re-done different things in the house, I've been saving the "metal". The place I went to didn't take the "steel" I had at all but they did take the lead drain piping and copper tubing. What shocked me was the copper tubing. It was maybe 10 ft of 1/4" (ice maker feed) and I got $6 for that tiny amount. Now I'm not surprised why people are stealing the copper tubing off of AC units !! My neighbor is an HVAC contractor and when he removes an old unit, he'll just put it in the alley next to his trash knowing it will be GONE before morning. | |
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| Kearnstd
Elf Wizard
Premium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | notice that nobody steals from the power company, too bad the telco cant bump up the voltage.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports | |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| Re: Incroyable! said by Kearnstd :notice that nobody steals from the power company, too bad the telco cant bump up the voltage. HAHAHAHA I would pay good money to see someone try to steal copper from the power company
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
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| | | csalazarv
Premium
join:2004-01-21
Costa Rica | Re: Incroyable! too bad I dont have the clip but a few months ago a thief was caugh stealing cable from the power lines and the news crew got him at the moment when he got electrocuted and then after a 12 ft fall.............hits the ground | |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| said by pnh102 :said by Kearnstd :notice that nobody steals from the power company, too bad the telco cant bump up the voltage. HAHAHAHA I would pay good money to see someone try to steal copper from the power company Oh i see big spools of this thick copper electrical cable in contruction areas. a guy i know regularly steals this stuff, takes bolt cutters in to cut it. then he strips the rubber insulation off it, recycling yards pay about 2 dollars for a foot of this quality cable. course these thefts are passed on to the homebuyer whos having their houses built.
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth | |
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Hall
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-28
Dayton, OH
·EarthLink
·AT&T Midwest
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
1 edit | said by Kearnstd :notice that nobody steals from the power company... This is about criminals, right ? And most criminals are stupid, right ? I'm looking for the article, but it did happen here in Dayton. Needless to say, after a couple of weeks or a month of certainly extreme pain in the hospital, this guy won't be stealing *anything* anymore...
Here's a very brief, and old, story about this incident: Man Shocked By Wire In Dayton In Intensive Care
The man shocked while allegedly trying to steal copper Thursday afternoon is in Intensive Care after getting burned.
Police said 48-year-old Grover Scott took an ax and chopped through a powerline carrying more than 13,000 volts of power.
The electricity burned Scott over 40 percent of his body on Edwin C. Moses Boulevard.
The incident knocked out power to part of the city including Sinclair Community College. »www.whiotv.com/news/9314409/detail.html | |
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Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX | Re: Incroyable! It happened in Dallas a few weeks ago. A man was fatally
electrocuted after he tried to steal copper from a live
power line.
Someone said he'd looked like he had been through a
bug zapper. | |
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| | | dave
Premium,MVM
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio | 'Carrying X volts of power'. Sigh. Science education isn't what it used to be. | |
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| | | | NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| Re: Incroyable! I saw a science professor at a community college attempt to debunk perpetual motion. It didn't go so well. Even after showing the students the trick, about 1/3 of them were still positive that perpetual motion was really possible.
(I suspect the other 2/3 already knew the truth).
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Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum | |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| Volts isnt what kills you, its the amperes.
a cops tazer has 50K volts. true it hurts but doesn't do much damage(i think the barbs they shoot hurt more than the current does.
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth | |
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tapeloop
1959. I try to kick the ball. I miss.
Premium
join:2004-06-27
Airstrip One
| Re: Incroyable! said by dvd536 :Volts isnt what kills you, its the amperes. a cops tazer has 50K volts. true it hurts but doesn't do much damage(i think the barbs they shoot hurt more than the current does. Your statement about the Amps vs. Voltage is correct. Tasers have killed in quite a few cases though:
»www.findarticles.com/p/articles/···14901342
»www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200···m?csp=34
If you're trying to rip off wire from a live circuit, then you're probably not smart enough to know about the flow of electrons--even as they arc through your body. 
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I cannot stand demagoguery. If you disagree with my stance, you're a blithering twit. You're not a twit, are you? | |
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N3OGH
Bear patrol must be working like a charm
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs | Darwin award nominee...... | |
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The Folsom
Kindly Shut Your Noise Hole.
Premium
join:2003-01-31
Yucaipa, CA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| said by Hall :said by Kearnstd :notice that nobody steals from the power company... This is about criminals, right ? And most criminals are stupid, right ? I'm looking for the article, but it did happen here in Dayton. Needless to say, after a couple of weeks or a month of certainly extreme pain in the hospital, this guy won't be stealing *anything* anymore... Here's a very brief, and old, story about this incident: Man Shocked By Wire In Dayton In Intensive Care
The man shocked while allegedly trying to steal copper Thursday afternoon is in Intensive Care after getting burned.
Police said 48-year-old Grover Scott took an ax and chopped through a powerline carrying more than 13,000 volts of power.
The electricity burned Scott over 40 percent of his body on Edwin C. Moses Boulevard.
The incident knocked out power to part of the city including Sinclair Community College. »www.whiotv.com/news/9314409/detail.html "Paging Charles Darwin... Charles Darwin, please pick up the 'Buzzing Red Phone in the Intensive Care Unit... Charles Darwin, pick up the 'Buzzing Red Phone in the Intensive Care Unit...' Thank you..."
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"Gimme a 'C'! A bouncy 'C'! There once was a boy from Nantucket whos 'Da Da Da Dee Dee Dee' whatever the hell else you want..." | |
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Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1
clubs: | Re: Incroyable! all u need is a power outage | |
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Maggs
Premium
join:2002-11-29
Woodside, NY
·RCN CABLE
| Re: Incroyable! Hell, I could have looted Con Ed's copper underground lines for 8 days straight 
Walks into bank with $20,000 in cash.... I'd like to make a deposit.
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When the lights go out, just draw a KMAP, and all is good. | |
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CCTVTech
Premium
join:2003-04-23
Phoenix, AZ
clubs: | A commercial building near me had its breaker boxes broke into and and the copper ripped out. | |
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elios
join:2005-11-15
Springfield, MO | in MD when thay were building the over head for the Lightrail people were stealing the copper
there were a few that even tryed once the over head was energized >.> | |
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fireflier
Coffee. . .Need Coffee
Premium
join:2001-05-25
Limbo | Uh, yeah they do. And some of them die doing it. Check out my post above. . .
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I'd kill for a Nobel peace prize! | |
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Kibbles
Premium
join:1999-07-31
Mission Viejo, CA
| I think about $3.70 a pound...here in So CA people are recycling Copper Heat Exchangers from old Pool Heaters..there is usually about 20-40 pounds of Copper from each Heater.
I used to drop the old heaters off at our Wholesaler and someone would pick them up to be Recycled....now it is the Wholesaler that Recycles them  | |
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| Kearnstd
Elf Wizard
Premium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | guess i was wrong, people are dumb enough to challenge 13kv.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports | |
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Kxpuc
join:2004-05-04
Houston, TX | Re: Incroyable! meh voltage doesn't kill Amps do | |
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SandShark
So it goes
Premium,MVM
join:2000-05-23
Santa Fe, TX
clubs:
·Verizon Online DSL
| And Then What? So, you rip off a ton of copper cable, then what? I don't know about France, but where I live if you walk in a salvage yard with a ton of copper telephone cable, a lot of questions are going to be asked.
We've had cases of working air conditioning units being disassembled to remove the copper/aluminum condenser coils. One time, someone climbed on the roof of a local church and stole a buttload of 2-1/8" hard copper refrigerant tubing along with the copper gutters. The thieves were later apprehended by police. | |
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CO_Chris
Premium
join:2001-08-28
Broomfield, CO | Re: And Then What? This did happen in Houston? | |
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phaqu
join:2005-05-26
Marietta, GA | This isnt something new Stuff like that has been going on for years. | |
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dsanders16
join:2001-02-24
Auburn, AL | fios installs now you know what verizon is doing. | |
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| pcnetworx1
join:2005-09-21
Bethel Park, PA | Re: fios installs - Warning, sarcasm overload Copper - Financing the 21st Century Fiber Builds.  | |
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richardpor
Fur it up
join:2003-04-19
Portland, OR | Same Problem Here in Oregon we have the same problem with tweakers (meth) ripping of copper off new construction. | |
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God
IN Vilseck Germany
Premium
join:2002-07-01
Colorado Springs, CO
clubs: | Re: Same Problem when you need the money you will do what you have to do in order to get it ... | |
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cableties
Premium
join:2005-01-27
·Verizon FIOS
| Re: Same Problem They are stealing siding too. Aluminum siding, gutters, AC from folks windows that are on vacation (or from their vacation homes).
I've read about a development that had street lamps installed (about 3-4 miles worth of streets) and ALL the cables were ripped out of the lights before they even had them connected.
Scrapyards usually don't ask if the insulation is removed (burned off). And unless it has some name-tag stamped on it, or the dealer is keen to local law enforcement, I doubt they care.
Anyone using a scrapyard will likely get in there just before the load is getting sent to processing/smelter or container for export to ...china. | |
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| | | shezams
My Other Car Is A Zamboni
Premium
join:2001-08-14
Hyattsville, MD | Re: Same Problem Awhile back they had an article about stealing aluminum light poles off the streets in Baltimore. Those aren't small.
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Simple rules - no offsides, no intent to maim, everything else is all good! | |
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| | | | moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Same Problem said by shezams :Awhile back they had an article about stealing aluminum light poles off the streets in Baltimore. Those aren't small. Yep and the ONLY way they got caught was cause they found someone driving with this 50 foot pole out of their tiny car. They should have arrested the scrap yard that took it in and closed them down too. | |
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David
No,there is another.
Premium,VIP
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL
clubs:
 ·DIRECTV
 ·magicjack.com
·AT&T Midwest
| few thoughts, and some info. said by pnh102 :said by Derfel :Uh... that's quite a bit of copper. Any idea what the market value of that would be? Probably nothing... how the heck is anyone going to sell that stuff? Actually you would be suprised, metal recycling places are about like shady pawn shops. They don't care where it comes from and if you burn all the sheathing off and such who's to say it was a telecom cable? My dad scraps metal on the side and works for the city goverment (trash, sewer, gas, street repairs and such..) and when he went in there they had several fire hydrants and all kinds of stuff. It would just make you question... "hmmmmm.."
said by Kearnstd :notice that nobody steals from the power company, too bad the telco cant bump up the voltage. I asked one of my co-workers about this one day. For this instance I will call him "Kieth".
Kieth told me back in the day it was not common to put say a 24v sensor on a line or a loop back (short on one end and attached to sensors on another) so if the voltage dropped on that pair, or the short loop was broken an alarm would trigger in the C.O. "That's how SBC used to catch them back in the day" Kieth said, "Quite effective after a while they would stop trying". Kieth advised that they just took one pair out of the entire cable and that pair belonged to SBC for just that purpose.
Kieth said "You may get a few and be lucky, but most people don't stop at a few and greed is what gets them caught eventually."
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If you have a topic in the direct forum please reply to it or a post of mine, I get a notification when you do this.
Koetting Ford, Granite City, illinois... YOU'RE FIRED!!
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spg
Grrrr
join:2001-10-31
NOT Texas!
| Re: few thoughts, and some info. We ARE alarming the cables once again. This is nothing new, and some of the time the crooks get caught red handed because of the alarmed cable, especially in the rural areas where they think they have more time.
And then there are the residents... I personally know of an area where if you get caugt stealing the telephone cable (again), you'd better HOPE the Sheriff gets there soon! After the cable's been stolen a couple of times, it's not appreciated when you try to cut it. | |
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neonhomer
Honoray Mythbuster
Premium
join:2004-01-27
Edgewater, FL
clubs:
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
| More the reason to use fiber When I used to work in residental HVAC, I used to keep the old copper linesets we pulled out. (The company just threw them away.) They averaged about 40' long, from 3/8" diameter to 5/8" diameter flexible copper tube. I would clean it up and cut it down to size, and then just hold on to it till I had enough to sell. I would bring in a few hundred dollars.
All the more reason to use fiber..... | |
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Rob A
Same Old Jets
Premium
join:2005-01-17
Pompton Plains, NJ | Wow The phone companies in france gotta be more protective, that's surprising. | |
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Gunslinger03
join:2004-07-09
Chesapeake, VA |  Precious metal prices continue to climb...
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| backness
join:2005-07-08
K2P OW2 | Re: Precious metal prices continue to climb... the gold standard was eliminated long ago | |
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inurenegade
join:2006-06-11
Wilmington, DE | lol this reminds me of the time some people stole comcast nodes and other equipment from a development i wonder where they sell comcast nodes? | |
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algolly
join:2003-08-28
New York, NY | they cannot be selling it on the open market. While copper is valuable, I'd guess it's even more valuable to someone who's just been told there's none available. I bet we'll learn that some specific company has been doing this. | |
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veh
join:2003-04-05
San Francisco, CA | Stealing copper I heard that power companies in some Asian countries got tire of replacing stolen copper cable, have already switched to aluminum cable. Very sad. | |
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Copper Thieves
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