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Years ago crooks would break into you home, when you were not home, and steal your TV, silverware, guns and jewelry + any cash they found. Today's hot item is copper – your wiring, copper pipes and copper heating elements. While yesterday's crooks could damage your home; today's copper thieves are taking damage to another extreme. Besides the replacement value of the copper, the labor to replace it, water damage and sometimes motel/hotel accommodations until your home is livable again.
Very few of these crooks are caught and I have yet to hear of a scrap yard that takes the fall with the crook. I believe that my state of PA requires some paper work from the scrap yard on these copper transfers. I am curious what other states do and if others have the same problems.
I am also interested if any states have programs to thwart this kind of theft and if it works?
In North East PA it seems to be all the rage. We are looking for another home now and occasionally we come open one that looks pretty nice, may need a little TLC but when we enquirer the copper piping has been ripped out!
I also noticed that this was a problem one state to the west in OH where our son attends college. We saw some beautiful older homes that were insanely low in price and ....you got it! The copper piping was ripped out!
As a matter of fact the house right next door to us which was lost by the home owners for back taxes fell victim to this. One night we heard loud sounds emanating from this house. We first thought that the City was sealing up the abandoned building but once again - copper pipe theft!
They've even gutted ball park wiring here. There is a lot of legitimate scrap copper and other metals out there. We don't want to stop salvaging. New aluminum for instance "Recycling aluminum from scraps and discards uses only about 5 percent of the energy required to manufacture new aluminum". I imagine same may be true of other metals such as copper.
Some sort of documentation as to the source of scrap is maybe the only way to cull out the thieves. Gonna require unbiased observers of course. The thieves are actually making pennies compared to the destruction they leave behind.
In North East PA it seems to be all the rage. We are looking for another home now and occasionally we come open one that looks pretty nice, may need a little TLC but when we enquirer the copper piping has been ripped out!
I also noticed that this was a problem one state to the west in OH where our son attends college. We saw some beautiful older homes that were insanely low in price and ....you got it! The copper piping was ripped out!
As a matter of fact the house right next door to us which was lost by the home owners for back taxes fell victim to this. One night we heard loud sounds emanating from this house. We first thought that the City was sealing up the abandoned building but once again - copper pipe theft!
This takes down the value of the whole neighborhood. I am also trying to get a congressman on board. I think that we still need tougher laws. Laws could be an inconvenience – but the inconvenience would still be cheaper than replacing all of our plumbing. There will always be legitimate scrap, buyers and sellers. We just want to close the door on the thieves.
Our homes should be our castles. That is what capitalism is about. You work hard and you have your home to show for your efforts. It is sick that so many are willing to damage so much for so little.
Good luck to you and Sheena on your quest for an new home.
The same story here in Western Europe. Copper and metal theft (esp. aluminium) is endemic. Sometimes people are killed by electrification while stealing copper cables on railways, or by messing around in electricity cabins.
The same story here in Western Europe. Copper and metal theft (esp. aluminium) is endemic. Sometimes people are killed by electrification while stealing copper cables on railways, or by messing around in electricity cabins.
I was hoping that it was just us and other countries found a solution to the problem!
What also bothers me is the respect issue. We used to respect the property of others. We might have been envious; but we would never damage of steal their property. Today's thinking is entirely different. People just don't care that they are doing thousands of dollars in damage for just a few dollars in their own pockets.
Our daughter just bought a new home and the central air had to be replace ... all the copper was stolen. This is happening all the time around here. They hit new housing developments, churches and shopping centers.
What do they do with the copper ... they have to be selling it to some junk yard.
You sell the copper to scrap places. Its usually junkies. I have a friend who actually does scrapping for a living while going to school. He does it the right way though and collects old scrap from trash and what businesses pay him to remove. They don't check IDs or anything at the scrap yards I know of. They should log the IDs of anyone who scraps that type of thing. It should be a law. Contractors and people like my friend can show paperwork of it not being a theft. They should also have a hot list out there that these yards must adhere too just like any other business when it comes to stolen property.
Bite force is more than 3x a pitt bull's bite.
Plus the jaw has scissor action to chew up things like wolves.
Burglars = free dog food. LOL
(they kill lions and bears when they are working Shepard dogs so...lol)
I had a coworker who had her gutters stripped off (copper and nice neighborhood) and she only had them a few months!
Insurance covered it but still...the roof was damaged and they broke a window too in the process.
Today I just talked to my local Representative. PA now has new legislation that has passed the House and is now in the Senate: HB 2032. It basically stiffens the penalties for those that are criminally involved in scrap. Of course it still has a ways to go before it would become law.
My feeling is that our PA law will not make too much difference. I like some of the provisions in the new AZ law. I like the notion of the scrap yards mailing the checks to the people selling. I like that they restrict anyone under 16 from selling – I would have preferred 18 years old.
I am all for looking at what others do to fix a problem. We should take what works and disregard what doesn't work.
I would just like our police to take more notice of this growing problem. You hear these stories about homes damaged and everybody seems to turn a blind eye. I would love to hear more stories about the businesses that are willingly fencing this stolen metal. If we could shut off the money; maybe we could stop these criminals.
this has been going on for ages. my ex husband used to do this thirty years ago when he was a broke teen up in rochester. i think its just a sign of the economic times. property crimes might be up but violent crime is down statistically all over the country (with a few glaring exceptions).
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