A story in the paper today talks about the theft this morning of overhead railway power lines, pressumably for the value of the copper contained in them. The article mentions that:
Is this really happening elsewhere as the quote suggests?
Yes, I have heard of it here (Colorado) including people getting seriously electrocuted during the theft.
We don’t have any train lines around here, but wire being stolen from power stations and such is becoming very common. It’s apparently very popular with the meth users in this area.
Unfortunately, with copper (and other metal) futures on the rise, the value of copper has risen significantly in the last year or two – last I saw it was sitting at $4/lb, which is making it a tempting prospect for would-be thieves. Predictably enough, a number of those thieves have been serious candidates for Darwin Awards.
I wouldn’t say it’s common in that it’s happening all over the place all the time, but it’s a relatively recent trend due to its burgeoning value so the fact that we’re hearing about it all and in multiple cases probably makes it seem like a quasi-epidemic.
Since copper prices have tripled in recent years, theft of copper-containing items has spiked dramatically. Vacant or newly built houses and construction sites are prone to this type of theft/vandalism. Even the air-conditioning compressor unit outside many homes isn’t immune - it contains quite a hefty chunk of copper in the motor via windings, I suppose, and the coils.
The trick is to clamp down on the scrap yards that are willing to accept obviously stolen goods.
Here in Buffalo we had a freak snowstorm a month ago the caused a lot of trees with the leaves still on them to take out the powerlines. Over 200,000 people were without power for days to weeks. There were reports of theft of power lines on the ground being stolen for scrap.
The price of all scrap metals has gone through the roof in the last few years. I’m half owner of a machine shop. A few months ago my partner and I went into the dusty filthy back corners of the shop to cash in as scrap the stuff that was laying around for the last 25 years that his Grandfather accumulated.
At least three times in the past month the TV station in Montgomery has reported some major copper theft. Some from buildings under construction, some from telephone wires, some from air conditioners. One condemned apartment complex had every air conditioner destroyed to steal the copper content.
Sounds like more work than thieves normally do, but I guess it’s pretty easy to get away with. As mentioned above, the only solution will be to stop junkyards from buying copper that’s obviously been stolen.
How much did you get?
I’ve been told that it’s a problem in Pakistan. A line outage often meant that a section of the line had disappeared.
It is very common even among workers for electrical companies. When I worked at Pike Electric as a groundman during the summer of 2005 there were a few lineman, groundman, drivers that would do this. The company I worked for was subcontracted and was supposed to return excess materials including copper wire back to the utility FP&L. One guy in particular would put a little bit in his lunchbox everyday and take it home but it added up pretty fast.
From a recent news article, its happening in Italy, chunks of their rail network are being brought down because of it.
Reminds me of a story from a while back from an ex-CIA officer helping stir up anti-Vietcong feelings in some tribe or another near Vietnam. When the men started stealing his radio antenna (which was a long strip of wire) he simply swapped the radio for the battery one night and waited till some of them were fried, they stopped stealing it from then on.
This sort of thing is very common indeed in the third world, and not uncommon in the developed world. I remember stories from the early days of the Iraqi occupation that a lot of the power supply problems were caused by gangs dynamiting pylons to steal the wire.
One of the reasons cellular phones are so popular across Africa is that they are much less prone to the problem of people shimmying up telephone poles and stealing the wire.
Is that worse that just being plain electrocuted? 
According to rail sources I know, it seems these people did NOT steal live 1500v DC overhead wire, but rather signalling wire. This is heavy cable used to connect the rails to the signalling system where there is an insulated “block” in the rail to let the system know a train has entered a new section. The current flowing through these is very small, and the thick cables are worth more on the black market than the uverhead contact wire. Easier to get at, too.
Detroit has this problem now. They’re trying to decide between enacting an ordinance and actually enforcing it.
That looks so much stupider when it’s typed out.
I work in a not-so-great area of Cleveland and it’s not uncommon around here to have homes have their aluminum siding stolen right off the side of their house to be sold to one of the area scrap dealers. I’ve seen it happen to several homes along my commute route during the past several years.
Behold the power of the price mechanism.
The BBC ran a story today about this. It’s not only copper that is being stolen but any sort of metal. This includes manhole covers, park railings, swings and slides from children’s playgrounds and even a one ton Henry Moor bronze statue from a public park. The reason is the rise in metal prices due to demand in China and India.
One good outcome of this is that you don’t see abandoned cars on every street corner. A couple of years ago you had to pay the scrap merchant to take your old car. Now they actually pay you, the problem of abandoned cars has almost disappeared .
There are still people being killed. Only last week near here three men had broken into a high-voltage transformer compound and one 17-year old was electrocuted.
Twenty years ago the railways were suffering the loss of copper telephone cables which are just laid alongside the track in shallow concrete troughs. It was very easy to steal the stuff in the middle of the countryside. So the railways went over to using fibre-optic cables for their telecomms. When the word got around that there was no scrap value in this sort of cable there were no more thefts.
This is nothing new, it’s just more common now because of prices. There is a guy in town who got electrocuted when he tried to steal a live wire. It didn’t kill him but it damaged his arms enough that he had to get them apputated just above the elbow. He is now known as Flipper. He is remarkably good with his stumps and has no trouble using his crackpipe.