Went to the Machine Shop to pick up some parts. I thought it was "open house" day as all the local shops doors were propped open. Found out that a band of thieves had climbed onto the roof of every business in the area and had cut out the cores of every air handler. A very large operation requiring some major hauling capability.
When I bought my house in October, the home inspector I hired made a point of checking the pipes to make sure they were still there, saying copper thefts had been on the rise. He had inspected one house occupied by operators of a meth lab before it was sold, and found all the copper pipes had been stripped out.
there was a news story here in my home town about people breaking into car dealerships and using a hack saw to remove the catalytic converter from the cars exhaust system. apparently a small amount of platinum is inside each of the catalytic converters... they people then melt these down and use them to make " grills " to put on their teeth... Bunch of Thugs....
Those people should be offered free metal grills, composed of alloys containing mercury, arsenic, lead, and cadmium. Hell, I'd even offer to pay for them if they'd wear them.
My neighborhood was hit about 3 months ago in broad daylight by thieves stealing copper downspouts. They shook the downspout - if it was loose they pulled it off and put it in a van. They were caught by police reviewing salvage yard records. Heroin addicts.
To get to my pipes they have to crawl under the house. To crawl under the house they have to jump an eight foot fence into my back yard. Once there, they have to deal with a dog that is very protective and territorial. I still have my copper pipes. Of course, most of the houses in this area have their original galvanized pipes. No way to tell that I had my pipes replaced. And there's still the dog.
