AT&T Goes After Copper Wire Thieves 338
coondoggie writes "Copper thieves targeting Atlanta are now being targeted themselves by AT&T, which is offering $3,000 for information leading to their arrest. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that in one recent three-day stretch, nearly 7,000 customers and two schools lost land line phone service. The FBI has said in the past that the rising theft of the metal is threatening critical infrastructure by targeting electrical substations, cellular towers, telephone land lines, railroads, water wells, construction sites, and vacant homes for lucrative profits."
also biggest target for menards/home depot/lowes (Score:2, Interesting)
i usually pick up the biggest spool i can a few times and turn it over, then leave then come back and do it a few times just to watch them dance and attempt to continue their charade.
copper is more lucrative than gold in leveraging society. it is required in abundance.
Currently inducing a headache... (Score:5, Funny)
Looks like these guys are stopping people from...
*puts on sunglasses*
...conducting business.
Re: (Score:2)
Do I hear...The Who?
Re: (Score:2)
-1 for lack of style.
Re: (Score:2)
slashdot = stagnated
And yet you don't just post here, you maintain several accounts so that you can continue to post your drivel when your karma gets so low one is blocked from posting. Which says a lot more about you than it does about the site...
Re: (Score:2)
It's overrated because there is a thread much funnier above.
It's not that funny, others are better.
Copper wire in South Africa (Score:2, Interesting)
I definitely agree that fiber is the way to go, especially once you've replaced the same line more than 6 times....
Problem is that they go after the electricity cables too, and those can't be replaced with fiber.
Occasionally they end up self fried, but it doesn't seem to be a long term deterrent.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps improving the job market and your nations distribution of wealth might help. People go to extremes when they cannot afford the basics of life. If your kids needed to eat you too would risk toasting yourself with an electrical line.
who is dumb enough to go a electrical substations (Score:2)
who is dumb enough to go a electrical substations to take cable when there is other cable that is easy to get and is safer to get.
Re: (Score:2)
Right. Like active plumbing: http://rochester.ynn.com/content/top_stories/525390/apparent-copper-theft-leads-to-flooding-of-future-reoc-building/ [ynn.com]
the comcast office has lots them just setting in t (Score:2)
the comcast office has lots them just setting in the back.
This is a problem not just besetting AT&T (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the reasons newer A/C condensers have signs like "NO COPPER INSIDE" is exactly because of this.
The reason for this happening? Copper is in areas that have no guards, alarms, curious onlookers. Then it is just one insulation-burning step away from a recycler and cash per pound.
The only real solution is to start forcing recyclers to have a chain of custody, similar to what pawnshops have when someone tries to sell/pawn something. No "well, I got this copper from an old remodel I just did" BS which serves now. Require a valid ID for sale with valid contact info. Some recyclers do their homework with this, but there are always others who don't.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That's the problem. When the scrap dealers will accept parking meters and in one case, the pendulum from a hundred-year-old clock, then the problem isn't the meth-head looking for a fix. A reputable place will require ID and call the place. Some of the places here provide coffee, a tent, and insulation strippers.
No really, parking meters. They started stealing the parking meters.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
... Some of the places here provide coffee, a tent, and insulation strippers...
You know copper recycling is profitable if they can afford to provide strippers.
Re: (Score:2)
Some of the places here provide coffee, a tent, and insulation strippers.
What is the tent for? "Methhead just stripped all the copper out of the last relative's house who let him stay there and now has no other place to go" I'm assuming?
Re: (Score:2)
A few years ago the San Jose police had a nice sting. They put up actual paper fliers around offering to buy copper, and then set up a recycling center store front. When word got out that they'd buy anything, people actually showed up with stolen cars, drugs, guns, and even a guy selling bombs.
Re: (Score:2)
I think that is exactly a tool that might need to be used more, although it takes resources and manpower from an already strained system (and property crimes are low on the list in general) -- more sting operations like that. Perhaps even a recycling center that is persistant, but is able to keep tabs on the perps just for evidence reasons.
A long term sting like that would do three things -- make the thieves doing that leery of recycling centers in general, throw a number in prison, and perhaps help find o
Go for the buyers (Score:2)
If they're stealing the stuff it's because someone is paying them to do so, go after those thieves.
Why not Dallas, TX? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder what would happen if you rounded them up and took them out to a mine and gave them picks.
Re: (Score:2)
If you promised meth in exchange for whatever you want out of the ground you would get a lot of digging and some amount of killing each other. On the whole I bet it would be a very productive mine.
Re: (Score:2)
Sign of the Times (Score:2)
Be careful (Score:2)
I don't want to see any of you heartless punks turning in Bubbles.
There are worse things (Score:3, Interesting)
Wow, a whole $3000??? (Score:3, Funny)
I can definitely see why someone would put their life at risk by snitching on criminals, for that kind of reward. They could live like a king!
That's even more than I could get for finding that lost dog!
Re: (Score:2)
Given how relatively little money they make from the scrap sales (only $4/lb, even if they carried 100lbs it's only $400), $3000 is enough to make one meth-head turn on another I'd wager.
So this is why AT&T hasn't burried my cable ye (Score:2, Interesting)
Looking in the wrong direction (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
i can see the headline now (Score:3, Funny)
"Coppers put Stopper on Copper Choppers"
Penny mining (Score:3, Insightful)
.
Mad Max (Score:2)
Life imitates art again: welcome to the world of Mad Max. Water ain't the only finite resource. Have you had the catalytic converter stolen off your SUV yet?
Re:Wow! (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Most current events are. You can't insulate yourself from it. ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They'll be met with resistance soon enough, if this current trend continues.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That would take an enormous effort - one well beyond the capabilities of any single human.
You'd need a giant robot - a Transformer.
Perhaps Shockwave?
DG
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
...Voila no more copper thefts!
...until the robots take over.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, the head ends and such aren't so easy to sell but copper is copper. Once it's been stripped you have a hard time telling where it's come from, and there's plenty who don't care where it came from as well.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I'd have to guess paying an annual fee, and having to go "on record" would deter some of the average thieves?
I'm generally against any extra govt. intervention, rules or licensing...but this actually seems like it might server an appropriate function. I mean, the do monitor pawn shops, why not have some type of system that is somewhat analogous to what they do to pawn shops to help prevent stolen goods from be
Re: (Score:2)
What about people like my father who collect scrap from their work (with employer approval?) He currently brings home removed cable and cut ends and throws them in a barrel.
Will he have to go get a special license just to sell the barrel of scrap copper he's been collecting?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes. And please remind him that he should be including this income on his 1040. :)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, typically people who don't think they should have to follow the rules ruin it for everyone who does. I expect it to be true for everything eventually.
Either nobody will be able to do it profitably, except mega corps who will just steal from each other, or everyone will have to undergo TSAesque scrutiny.
Re: (Score:2)
There are a bunch of meth and oxy addicts in the nearest town... Cooper theft was pretty common until the recycling place began to require a contractor's license/ID to take the stuff.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I didn't realize that the theft of buckets and barrels was a huge issue anywhere.
Of course if you're talking about the theft of the cooper perhaps you should use kidnapping.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
All you do is what they do at the pawn shop, take your ID information. Anyone worried about copper theft should be having the insulation custom-printed. Sorry, but there it is. Of course, once it's been burned off, you're not going to know jack without some very expensive metallurgical work.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
My state already requires the scrap yard to take a photo id when they buy scrap.
So no need to create a big new government apparatus to oversee such sales, just increase the fines on yards that make mistakes (which helps deter them from making "mistakes").
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm..how about some type of official licensing required to sell scrap copper and/or other metals.
We do that up here in Minnesota. It didn't work.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Because cayenne8's comment is one step removed from the typical slashdot bullshit post about how free markets are shit and government should regulate everything related to business.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sometimes that someone is himself. Or at least one of his selves.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You're the idiot, you didn't even read the parent's post. Is reading comprehension a problem for you? Come on, troll harder.
Nowhere is the parent suggesting that tearing down other people's houses is legal. He's suggesting that criminals don't give two shits about the law. Apparently you can't read between the lines, idiot.
By the way, you are supposed to capitalize the first letter of every sentence, and "I" is spelled with a capital I. I know it's really hard to reach the shift key with your fat, hot
Re: (Score:2)
What about electrical transmission, smart guy?
It's not like people haven't tried to steal that copper wire from power lines. I'm pretty sire fiber optic won't help there.
Re: (Score:3)
I think the problem of people trying to steal powerline cables is one that takes care of itself fairly quickly.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, and if they're really lucky tehy may even win an award [darwinawards.com] for it!
Re: (Score:2)
You'd think so wouldn't you? Back about 2 years ago, some idiots tried stealing copper elec. lines, and blew out a 220k kv transformer about 2 blocks from my house. No smoking shoes. That left a city of ~30,000 people without power for nearly a day and a half.
Re: (Score:2)
It took them a day and a half to replace a transformer serving 15,000 customers? That doesn't say much good about the power company. Unless the police delayed them for most of that time "investigating".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You'd think so - wouldn't you?
Much like the problem of people killing each other should eventually result in less people willing to fight left - yes somehow that problem seems to persist throughout the ages.
Theivery is another problem thats lasted the test of time - and even the most strict punishment awarded (death) hasn't been shown to deter this kind of activity.
It just goes to show how illogical we as human beings are - and why "obvious solutions" never quite work as well as you'd think they would.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Death is not the most strict punishment ever awarded for theft, and it seemed to work pretty well. Vlad Tepes Dracula was a hero to his people for being tough on crime.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In Transylvania during the rule of Dracula, robbery and theft became very rare. Not because the penalty was death, the penalty was the thief (and the fence, and the guard on duty at the time and probably the families of those men) publicly tortured to death and the staked out along the road to rot and be eaten by buzzards.
I don't understand your statement. Murder is often a crime of passion, even with a 100% conviction and execution rate, murder would still happen occasionally. The death penalty does not ac
Re: (Score:2)
"and even the most strict punishment awarded (death) hasn't been shown to deter this kind of activity."
Change that to "completely deter".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, but those are phone wires, not power distribution wires. (The difference lies in both the voltage and the current.) All telcos not already done are in the process of replacing as much copper as possible with fiber, starting with the biggest markets and working their way down. A fiber cut is a PITA to repair but it's many times easier than splicing a fat bundle of pairs of copper.
Re: (Score:2)
A bundle of fibers cut is still a pain to replace. Even more than copper. But there is no reason for people to steal fiber, so all the cuts will end up being either accidental or vandalism with intent to steal until the news gets out that the big fat cables aren't copper any more.
Re: (Score:2)
I did, and I didn't comment on the title of the article, I commented on what you wrote ...
You just simply said all infrastructure.
There, I've run rings around 'ya. ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
No, you're trying to assert you used more specific words than you actually did. There's a difference. If I was cherry picking your words, I would have omitted some of them, instead of quoting them verbatim.
Either way, pedantry on Slashdot isn't exactly something to get excited about. If I didn't do it, someone else would have. :-P
Re: (Score:2)
You, sir, have a future in politics! ;-)
Re:Copper theft (Score:5, Informative)
Couple electrocuted while stealing copper wire [latimes.com]
Graphic photos too [snopes.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Graphic photos too
Toasty.
Re: (Score:2)
If you've ever seen video
Re: (Score:2)
But fiber optic transmits information better. And information is power...
Power requires a transformer to be useful. Information can only be transformed into power by human beings....and humans are the most inefficient transformers. Therefore, electrical wires transmit a more effective form of power than optic fiber.
/pedantic_argument
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
At work we've had people destroy fiber thinking they were stealing copper. The aftermath is much more expensive than repairing copper.
Re: (Score:2)
If there were no copper left then they would stop. Until then, if the risk is virtually nil, even if you have to cut 10 lines to find one copper one it will still be worth it. If there was a high enough chance of getting caught, then increasing the proportion of fiber would eventually be a deterrent. So the only real solution is some method of prevention or prosecution.
How about an anti-theft system that, when it detects tampering, it disconnects the communication equipment and throws on 10,000 volts?
Re: (Score:2)
How about an anti-theft system that, when it detects tampering, it disconnects the communication equipment and throws on 10,000 volts?
I want something like that in the Rio Grande
Re: (Score:2)
That's a temporary cost of switching. When the switching is done, the thieves will learn.
Re: (Score:2)
My wife's family owns a house in Freetown, Sierra Leone. They've replaced the fricking buried rubber water line providing water to the house 3 times, because thieves keep digging it up and stealing it. It ain't just copper that's a problem...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
So what we just need to do is put more into infrastructure, remove all copper and replace with fiber optic..Voila no more copper thefts!
That will raise fiber prices, inspiring fiber theft.
What we need is a bunch of hidden cameras watching key infrastructure at crucial points.
Harsh punishment for even attempting to remove installed wiring / conduit in attempt to steal metal.
And traps / "bait", in the form of putting some wiring in very visible places that _looks_ like easy pickings, but is heavily
Re: (Score:2)
And traps / "bait", in the form of putting some wiring in very visible places that _looks_ like easy pickings...
...which is heavily coated in poison ivy extract. Won't stop them; but the thieves will easy to identify at the scrap yard.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
While crackheads were once a major scourge the methheads have pretty much replaced them in everywhere but the most urban of locations.
Re: (Score:2)
No, they need to find that perfect balance where the voltage is JUST high enough so cause an arc but aren't sacrificing the current required to toast them.
Re:Scrap dealers; police who don't have time? (Score:5, Interesting)
Phone cables can be replaced, and a lot of people make good money doing it so it actually helps some who are not criminals. I'm just sayin'...
This reminds me of the parable of the broken window. [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Phone cables can be replaced, and a lot of people make good money doing it so it actually helps some who are not criminals. I'm just sayin'...
fallacy alert!
Re: (Score:2)
But I'm seeing a trend in policing: Personal crime (armed robbery, assault, murder) is given much higher priority than property crime.
The trend has been going on for a while. I was on a trial where a key part of the jury interview was asking about peoples' interactions with law enforcement. I think a bit less than 20 people had experienced property crime (mostly car break-ins and a few burglaries) and one person had experienced personal crime (there could have been more, several people did the interview privately). The only crime where someone was caught for it was the personal crime (a mugging where a suspect was found later that night).
Re: (Score:2)
They'll steal fibre too [krem.com]. Or just end up mangling the fibre while looking for copper.