And leaves the good stuff?
Answer: assholes.
~VOW
Won’t someone think of the children?
Apparently this thief did.
Steel scrappers. Steel scrappers would steal 200 trikes. If this wasn’t such a big story, I’d bet those trikes would turn up at a steel recycling place in the next few weeks. But since people are going to be on the lookout, unless someone made a deal with a recycling place (or owns one), they’re probably going to sit in storage for a while.
Somewhere, some mad scientist has created 200 clones of Artie Johnson.
Stories like this were semi-rampant in the mid 00s, until it was revealed that most of them were inside jobs, something I strongly suspected all along.
From the linked article…
police are now looking into how the thieves got the storage yard’s back gate open, how they knew to go to that particular unit
I’d say inside job is the most likely explanation.
200 five-year-olds?
That news anchor needs to lay off the lip injections or whatever she’s doing.
StG
Or 200 Shriners.
They may’ve gone through the shredder / crusher before the theft was even discovered. The best way to avoid evidence being found is to get rid of it quickly and thoroughly.
That was great!
Or at least the first minute was; I couldn’t stand it any longer.
That’s very possible and I haven’t read enough to know if it was stated, it’s entirely possible that they were stolen weeks or months ago, especially if wherever they were kept isn’t a place that people normally see throughout the day.
Even still, the people would have had to take them to a place where they won’t be recognized (or at least won’t be remembered), doesn’t require any type of ID and won’t report suspicious things to the police…or have a deal in place with someone.
Recyclers are, IIRC, required to notify the police when something suspicious shows up (or maybe they’re supposed to get an ID and license plate/vehicle description). However, I think that was more directed at people showing up with brand new 1000 pound spools of copper wire then something random like a bunch of trikes.
In any case, however, my bet is still going to be that they’ve been scrapped. It seems like it would take way too long to get rid of them any other way other than dumping them somewhere.
Since the Great Recession my local recycler has a file on everyone who uses their services, even if it’s just for soda cans or empty tin cans, that includes a picture, their vehicle, and their license and plate. I know, because I’ve seen my file (they actually have two for me - one for my truck and one for my car).
I’m not worried because I’m honest. I’m told that sort of record keeping has led to some prospective customers leaving abruptly.
I’m assuming there are unscrupulous operators who have the appropriate crushers / shredders and operate a clandestine business alongside or underneath a legit one. And that illegitimate side “fences” or “launders” the hotter stuff.
We know there are are “chop shops” where cars can be quickly parted out. And contract thieves who steal specific make/model/year cars on request to supply those shops.
I have to believe that similar criminal enterprises exist for the far less traceable scrap material biz.
The existence of e.g. @Broomstick’s very white market pretty well ensures there’s a black one practically, if not physically, nearby.
Aren’t there a lot easier and lucrative ways to steal metal for scrap? Do 200 tricycles even have as much scrap worth as single car? More likely, they’re being sold out the back of a truck (far from the place of theft) at a steep discount that’s still ten times their worth as scrap.
That has got to be it.
Assuming that each trike weighs 20lbs & with the current price of baling scrap at a penny a pound, then each tricycle is worth about $0.20 so even if the thief scraps them, they will only realize, at best, $40.00.
If the thieves remove all non-steel parts, maybe making them #1 steel, then the price per pound goes up to four cent a pound. This gets them to $160.00. Removing the non-steel parts is fairly labor intensive. Thieves seem to abhor labor, (otherwise they would earn a much less risky wage doing manual labor), so this makes no sense.
Is there a market for stolen tricycles south of the border, as there is for stolen cars? IDK.
The thief is probably peddling them elsewhere.
300 centipedes?
I feel sorry for the San Francisco Firefighters Christmas Toy Facility. As much as they may try to put a positive spin on this crime, losing 200 tricycles right before Christmas is a black-eye that benefits no one involved. It’s really a No-Schwinn situation.