atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General Telecom News Cable theft

Topic moved from Comdial.

We had a big produce distributor down in the Bronx near Yankee Stadium. They had 2 buildings connected with a feeder cable that ran under a subway overpass. The crackheads would climb onto the abuttments and cut the cable @1-2 times a year.

Wonder why we ask for so much metal, and buried conduit. Don't want it messed with make it inaccessible.

This seems to go in cycles. In the mid '80s, I had a 20' working length aluminum ladder and 4 lawn chairs stolen from the side of my house 1 weekend when we were out of town. The police took a report, but said that even if they accidently stopped someone with the items in their possession, the chances of recovery were slim at best. Even when I could tell them all the colors on the ladder. It had been in the family for 20+ years and used to paint half a dozen houses 2-3 times! And a buddy who worked for the power company said they were in a consolidation and materials recovery program and had to leave power lines energized until they wrecked them out, or the copper would dissapear overnight!
And I got a notice from Brownells (Gunsmith supply house) that most of their prices were being driven up because their suppliers are having to pay more for ALL metals, a year ago.(I wonder how much that Mauser 30-06 barrel I've been considering has gone up in the last 3 months.) John C. (Not Garand)

We have had the same problem around here.
They even passed new laws to try on stop it Here .

Same here. Copper is at an all time high. (I was told yesterday it's up to $2.00 per pound in the jacket)

A couple of weeks ago some guy climbed a pole somewhere around Dallas and was reportedly trying to steal the copper from the high voltage power lines while they were hot and got zapped, he later died as a result. I hate to think of anyone so desperate and/or that stupid dying for what-ever they could possibly gain by such an mistake in judgment.

Same here. Photo ID, photo of the vehicle's license plate and explanation as to where the goods came from are required at recyclers here. It's helping a little bit, but now they are stealing aluminum cable too.

This week we just had an incident where "professional metal thieves" shut down 6 stores for a day after removing the live wires that ran from the transformers on top of a pole down thru underground conduit to the back of the shopping center. Not sure how much wire it took for the estimated $900 scrap value, but I bet the lost revenue to the stores, and the replacement cost to the power company was much more. (I feel most sorry for the Frozen Yogurt store (TCBY) whose freezers shut down)

As a kid wiring Harvard. Each week we took a a pickup truck of telecom wire over to Everett.

We would pull some extra becuse the contractor never paid the the Heath and welfare for the job out of IBEW 103.

Politics's at it's best. I was going to call Bobby Topnotch.

On top of it and years later some general contractor started to
gave me crap about my three inch Bosh core drill.

He wish he never did.

It cost me 3000.00. But the satisfaction was worth every penny.

After the whole place was wired I show up with a crew of three men.. He said you can't run a drill.

I said that's ok...After an hour of negations on behaldf of the customer and the install date we cut all the wires..

I delayed the job for three weeks. This was the last time any general contractor will ever screw with the phone guy again.

He will never forget it.. As I was cutting all my hard work over three days they called security.

I said it's my wire and nobody has paid for it.

A big pile of copper but a true story.

I did not want to do it but the general contractor who was the building manager was 10 times worse than me on a bad day..

He got his show in tell lesson. I provided it.