Copper Theft

Copper theft is a problem here and all over the world, water pipes, wire, ac units are all being scrapped for cash. Its all the abandoned houses and foreclosures that are being hit the hardest and even some homes that are occupied. I’ve had my work stolen many times but this time was just crazy my feeders (wire) were stolen over night I had just wired it up a few hours before. So the wire was stolen twice on this house the first time was because the house was a foreclosure and then the wire I put in was stolen the same day I put it in. The first picture shows the remains of my first set of feeders, second picture is the remains of the indoor panel, third picture is my second set of feeders. This work is expensive It was a 50 foot pull and it had to be done twice!! The crazy thing was that I wired this house up twice in less then 24 hours.  

 

Man that’s crazy!! Damn tweekers!

A guy I work with gave me a window air conditioning unit to put in my buddies garage where we play music. I left it sitting in my driveway while I was at work one day and someone stole. I just hope they got a hernia from lifting it!

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Hopefully it dodn’t come out of your pocket and you got paid for the extra work……

I hate to see this.

If they focused this much effort on getting a job they would be outstanding in the field. I hate when someone takes the bread out of someone’s mouth who earned it with blood and sweat.

Poisonfangs85 wrote:

If they focused this much effort on getting a job they would be outstanding in the field. I hate when someone takes the bread out of someone’s mouth who earned it with blood and sweat.

You hit the nail on the head my man! These people put in as much time and work to steal something as they would if they were doing something legitmately. Here in indiana we have been having trouble with people stealing the live wires from our overhead roadway lighting.

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kruton wrote:

A guy I work with gave me a window air conditioning unit to put in my buddies garage where we play music. I left it sitting in my driveway while I was at work one day and someone stole. I just hope they got a hernia from lifting it!

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Haha, somebody almost stole an ac unit out of the back of my truck one time. I had a hammer in my hand when I was walking back to my truck to get something and I saw him opening the tailgate so I yelled at him and threw my hammer. I was close to hitting him in the head missed by a few inches but he ran away so fast I started laughing.

 

jbw55 wrote:

Hopefully it dodn’t come out of your pocket and you got paid for the extra work……

I had to discount the price the second time which really sucked I didn’t even want to do the job :/

Man that sucks J.H. i totally understand the feeling of getting ripped off.

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That sucks man, we had that problem at job were I use to work.

Just the other day I welded up a security cage for a construction trailers ac unit. Guy said he’s had three stolen in short timeframe. He finally decided to pay a little extra an have a metal cage made.

That’s sucks not getting paid what your entitled to…..sounds like a bank owned property

Scumbags looked like you did. Beautiful job my friend sad to see the setback

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suretyler97 wrote:

Scumbags looked like you did. Beautiful job my friend sad to see the setback

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Thanks man I try

 

jbw55 wrote:

That’s sucks not getting paid what your entitled to…..sounds like a bank owned property

It was an Investor and they always want things done cheap, I hate working for them. 

Fletcher94 wrote:

That sucks man, we had that problem at job were I use to work.

Just the other day I welded up a security cage for a construction trailers ac unit. Guy said he’s had three stolen in short timeframe. He finally decided to pay a little extra an have a metal cage made.

Yup, cages are a must for ac units, water backflow preventers and electrical meters. I told them before I left the first time that they need to put a cage on but they didn’t want to spend the money. I usually have the cage installed the same day after I finish my work.

Wow, damn man. That sucks. 

 

Is there a special reason the intake (and what looks like circuit breakers) is on the outside of the house? Just wondering, since I haven’t really seen something like it, and becouse it would seem simpler to protect agains theft if you install it on the inside. (in such a way that you would have no electrical exposed to the outside)

 

Easier to check and operate the circuit breakers too. ^^ 

Andrull wrote:

Wow, damn man. That sucks. 

 

Is there a special reason the intake (and what looks like circuit breakers) is on the outside of the house? Just wondering, since I haven’t really seen something like it, and becouse it would seem simpler to protect agains theft if you install it on the inside. (in such a way that you would have no electrical exposed to the outside)

 

Easier to check and operate the circuit breakers too. ^^ 

This is whats called a meter combo it has a main breaker to kill power to the whole house and you can install additional breakers for outside circuits. We are not allowed to have meters inside homes here and these meter combos are required on all new homes. This is for the safety of fire fighters in case of a fire they can shut power off to the whole house before walking inside or spraying water. Older homes just have a meter can outside and they still steal the wire and you can’t stop people from kicking the front door down. 

Justin Hernandez wrote:

This is whats called a meter combo it has a main breaker to kill power to the whole house and you can install additional breakers for outside circuits. We are not allowed to have meters inside homes here and these meter combos are required on all new homes. This is for the safety of fire fighters in case of a fire they can shut power off to the whole house before walking inside or spraying water. Older homes just have a meter can outside and they still steal the wire and you can’t stop people from kicking the front door down.

Must be a local code because in the national electrical code has nothing saying where you can put the service

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suretyler97 wrote:

Must be a local code because in the national electrical code has nothing saying where you can put the service

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You can’t even put it inside the house even if you wanted to we have no basements in Florida, and panels cannot be installed in bathrooms, bedrooms, or kitchens. The indoor panel is usually in a hallway here I guess if our code allowed it you can put the meter in the hallway too but you would hit your shoulder on the meter every time you walk by it..lol My whole state is like that on some old homes we have to move the meters out of outdoor utility closets. You have to have 36 inches of clearance in front of the meter or panel required by NEC. Only apartment buildings, condos and commercial buildings have indoor meter rooms 

Justin Hernandez wrote:

You can’t even put it inside the house even if you wanted to we have no basements in Florida, and panels cannot be installed in bathrooms, bedrooms, or kitchens. The indoor panel is usually in a hallway here I guess if our code allowed it you can put the meter in the hallway too but you would hit your shoulder on the meter every time you walk by it..lol My whole state is like that on some old homes we have to move the meters out of outdoor utility closets. You have to have 36 inches of clearance in front of the meter or panel required by NEC. Only apartment buildings, condos and commercial buildings have indoor meter rooms

I know mass 3 year apprentice electrican in ma we can’t put stuff outside because of the awful winters.

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suretyler97 wrote:

I know mass 3 year apprentice electrican in ma we can’t put stuff outside because of the awful winters.

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You can’t even have a meter can outside??

Justin Hernandez wrote:

You can’t even have a meter can outside??

we can have a meter can but the panel must be inside

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suretyler97 wrote:

we can have a meter can but the panel must be inside

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Ok cool, what I was trying to say was meters are not allowed inside the house but panels are. What company do you work for by the way??

Justin Hernandez wrote:

Ok cool, what I was trying to say was meters are not allowed inside the house but panels are. What company do you work for by the way??

A local out of Boston my man

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suretyler97 wrote:

A local out of Boston my man

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Sweet!!!

Copper theft is now a major issue in the UK. We even have people sneaking on to railways at night and stealing the signalling cables! Empty houses are often raided for the copper pipes and wiring. All metal theft is on the rise now sice we saw an influx of Roma Gypsies from Eastern Europe. These buggers are literally removing street furniture such as trash bins and benches to sell for scrap. Metal theft is now the number one crime that the British Transport Police (who deal with railways infrastructure) deal with. And it is very high on most other police priorities.

I had a CCTV install on a military base because of copper thieves. Remote Com relay stations, recall off-grid. Watched the thieves tie the wire to the back of their truck and drive away….

I’ve heard of construction sites where people sneak in and cut all of the copper tubing out. It’s a real thing to consider on the site.

Jimbo

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ChrisR wrote:

Copper theft is now a major issue in the UK. We even have people sneaking on to railways at night and stealing the signalling cables! Empty houses are often raided for the copper pipes and wiring. All metal theft is on the rise now sice we saw an influx of Roma Gypsies from Eastern Europe. These buggers are literally removing street furniture such as trash bins and benches to sell for scrap. Metal theft is now the number one crime that the British Transport Police (who deal with railways infrastructure) deal with. And it is very high on most other police priorities.

Smart water is used a lot on the railways it’s amazing stuff , I’ve got all my tools covered in the stuff too , problem on the railway is as they cut the copper out they also go through the fiber cables too causing double problems

Just thieving scumbags

I’ve just fitted fencing round a 3rd floor roof to protect the AC units

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ChrisR wrote:

Copper theft is now a major issue in the UK. We even have people sneaking on to railways at night and stealing the signalling cables! Empty houses are often raided for the copper pipes and wiring. All metal theft is on the rise now sice we saw an influx of Roma Gypsies from Eastern Europe. These buggers are literally removing street furniture such as trash bins and benches to sell for scrap. Metal theft is now the number one crime that the British Transport Police (who deal with railways infrastructure) deal with. And it is very high on most other police priorities.

Smart water is used a lot on the railways it’s amazing stuff , I’ve got all my tools covered in the stuff too , problem on the railway is as they cut the copper out they also go through the fiber cables too causing double problems

Just thieving scumbags

I’ve just fitted fencing round a 3rd floor roof to protect the AC units

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Detroit was having the problem of people stealing the copper from the freeway lights. They are now using aluminum now because its not nearly as desirable as copper. AC theft is common even in the suburbs at times as they just use loppers to cut the unit loose

We get it all the time on the HVAC side

Tony j wrote:

We get it all the time on the HVAC side

I do HVAC work as well and see it all the time. The few dollars they get clauses thousands of dollars in repairs