Future? We’ve had an epidemic of metal bandits for the past few years.
Civilizations advance then revert to barbarism. Instead of raw materials being used by craftsmen to make valuable products like buildings and railroads, we now see scavengers reducing sophisticated products back into raw materials by having copper drain pipes or grandma’s gold jewelry melted down.
It’s the same process that occurred in Rome in the wake of their empire. The Colosseum and Forum were dismantled by the locals to make crude stone shelters to live in.