Posted on 06/17/2011 11:10:30 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Copper wire continues to be snatched from the East Bay city of Antioch this year, and that’s translating into a big problem for Pacific Gas and Electric – considering how much the utility relies on the material.
Since the first of the year, 300 power poles have been knocked down in Antioch. The wiring contained on and within the poles was subsequently ripped off.
Stealing copper wire is nothing new, but Antioch police describe the recent spate of incidents unusual.
PG&E, meanwhile, maintains it takes $500 to repair a pole containing just dollars worth of copper.
Copper went for $1.25/lb in 2009, though the market price has since climbed to an estimated $4/lb.
Police have not identified any suspects.
And right next door is Solano Communist County (google or YouTube)
I hope they find the cuprits.
I lived there for about 15 years, ending in 2003. I went back to visit in 2007, and almost didn't recognize the place. It was as if someone had dropped the same streets onto a different city.
I lived in South Gate, CA, between 1960-1961.
South Gate was a very nice middle-class community, mostly of retired old-folks. It had a nice public library and I safely walked the three blocks to piano lessons. I’ve never been back.
But I have heard that now it is like little Norte Tijuana.
I lived in Antioch from 1972 to 1975. It was a totally straight square town then.
Depressing to find it’s gone downhill.
My father, son and I have a total of 65+ years working around high voltage lines and seen a few accidents. They are not nice!
People stealing cable will eventually make a mistake and either get caught or have this happen:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3624905/22k-volts-agony-of-copper-wire-thief-James-Sorby.html
This guy at least lived!
The odd/funny thing about that story is that a 22KV wire is very thin and there is very little copper in it.
It has MASSIVELY expanded. Just before I moved there, I used to skydive at the airport. Remember where the airport was? Grassy hills for as far as the eye could see? All developed now with the usual generic suburban sprawl, all the way out to Brentwood.
Dumb question: Who are they selling it to? If the cops were to roust a few scrap dealers as fences it would put a damper on the secondary market, wouldn’t it? I mean when a guy in a low rider shows up with a trunk full of high voltage cable, doesn’t someone think something is wrong?
Shady scrap metal dealers, I guess. Maybe there’s some reason that they’re hard to catch in the act. One dealer in Contra Costa called the cops when someone brought in the memorial plaque off of the Vietnam memorial, if I remember correctly.
What’s the scrap value of brass? This is stupid.
All is normal in Mexifornia nothing new except more faces from the south.
I think you're making some false assumptions about the identity of the persons knocking down these power poles..esse.
Damned Palin loving Amish Tea Partiers no doubt.
Scrap yards buying metal should get ID from sellers and a statement of the source. That makes it easier to track down the culprits.
No idea, but we’re not dealing with rocket surgeons here.
They need to look in the empty foreclosed homes, they're there, stripping the copper pipe and wire out of the walls.
Generally speaking, these "entitled" sanctuary tenured individuals will return by night burn down your scrapyard and office if they suspect you have violated the local "brothers don't snitch" policy. (Ya don't have to be a brother to have it apply to you.)
The local police don't have much sympathy for the owner who must be around 24/7 as the cops need to raise traffic ticket revenue on the graveyard to please the Mayor, so no drive by's in YOUR part of town,.... unless it's to express indignation because they heard you keep a shotgun around,.... from the environmental code enforcement officer looking for PCB's from transformers, he'll help you regularly with close support.
Actually scrap metal dealers generally give way more cooperation than they are protected, rewarded, or acknowledged for. All those items are real incidents, I had a friend in the business.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.