It was already off line for maintenance, and when the maintenance workers showed up, there was nothing for them to work on. Tower, transmitting equipment, etc. all gone.
For me, I’m guessing it was totally an inside job. They can’t commit insurance fraud because the equipment wasn’t insured.
Already being discussed over in the Omnibus Stupid MFers in the new thread (Part 2)
Stealing Copper from outside AC units is becoming a big problem.
I’m seeing wire cages over these units behind commercial buildings. Maybe residential too in high crime areas
Recyclers should be policed like pawn shops. They should be required to report suspicious or high value items. Especially truck loads of copper pipe, condesenser coils etc. A hvac contractor will routinely bring in scrap condesenser and evap coils. Plumbers have scrap copper pipe. A private individual should be able to account for his sources of metal. Especially when he’s showing up regularly with loads of scrap metal.
Big items like power line cables and commercial antennas should raise questions at the recycler.
Pawn shops have similar challenges with jewelry. Gem stones, Rings, and necklaces don’t have serial numbers. But they still get photographed and reported. So police can locate stolen items.
It’s a scandal that police stings aimed at junk dealers and recyclers are a rarity. The percentage of these businesses knowingly dealing in stolen material would shrink drastically, if there was a significantly greater likelihood of their being caught.
Criminals go into homes busting through walls and going into crawl spaces for pipe.
The replacement cost for stolen copper pipe is astonishing. Especially if walls & ceilings have to be repaired and repainted.
Plumbers are using Pex now because it’s faster to install and its polyethylene. No copper to steal.
“You would have to know it’s back there,’’ Elmore said. “It’s hard to get to and there’s only one way in and one way out. It’s a dead-end road.”
This also illustrates how issues like theft in stores can become worse when there is no traffic or people walking around. Less witnesses that could quickly report to authorities what is going on.
Stings have been done in my area, and recyclers are having the same kind of surveillance as pawn shops (and get in just as much trouble if they’re found to be dealing in stolen merchandise). This has especially happened with the uptick in catalytic converter theft.
Of course, there is no shortage of crooked fences, and underground buyers.
The tower, all 190 feet of it, had vanished — its 3,500 pounds of spindly steel beams possibly sliced into pieces and dragged away earlier this month by thieves, the police said
So if steel scrap is worth $200/ton then this is $350. This does not seem an adequate reward (although I expect the thieves made more money from the copper).