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Thread: hiding your copper

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    Default hiding your copper

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    This is intendend for you trouble man,either a 1 man or 2-man truck......isnt it a pain in the you know what..........having to hide,or lock up that#4 stranded and so on..........placing it into a bin and constantly moving it back and forth........the days of having it on a reel or rolled up in the well is fading away...............when some customers wave at your truck as you pass by ........they arent being friendly.........maybe they just need a meal or two,maybe some beer..........or maybe some crack................soon they will be taking the alumin...........where are we going to find all that room?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
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    Indiana
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    Sorta related... Last year there was a telecom contractor running a new fiber line to a cell tower location and had left a whole roll of messenger wire sitting along side the street. It sat there for months after they pulled out then one day it was gone. They were an out of state outfit and I doubt they came back for it.

  3. #3
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    Dec 2010
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    Ontario, Canada
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    The other day we had a couple hundred feet of guy steel laying out in a ROW, we had used it to tow a truck out, some guy wanted to take it for scrap.

  4. #4
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    Dec 2005
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    United States
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    Quote Originally Posted by reppy007 View Post
    This is intendend for you trouble man,either a 1 man or 2-man truck......isnt it a pain in the you know what..........having to hide,or lock up that#4 stranded and so on..........placing it into a bin and constantly moving it back and forth?
    Is trouble man copper more desirable than anyone else's? How many trouble trucks that you know of are left out over night?

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by TRAMPLINEMAN View Post
    Is trouble man copper more desirable than anyone else's? How many trouble trucks that you know of are left out over night?
    copper is copper........when a trouble man is in the backyard,it creates a good chance to have a free for all for somebody with sticky hands...........and some guys do bring the trucks home............I guess most copper is taken right from the yard..........Ive seen that happen.........there was one instance where there was a RV rental place next to the yard.......the guys cut the fence between the two properties...........found a wheel-barrel and went to town..................got all the trucks in the yard.................but you might not be surprised to find out that it was the prisident of the companys son that was involved.............this guy couldnt even become a lineman cause he failed his drug test...........but he still works there and his job is safe.............he is the prisidents son.

  6. #6
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    Oct 2006
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    South East Texas
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    Ummmmmmm back inna day I werked wiffa ole serviceman that hadda 5 gal. bucket inna back of hiz service truck. We required 18" outta a new weatherhead n he cut alla rest out n throwed it inna bucket. Sumtimes it wud amount to quite a bit but ever week he wud make a pass by hiz house n dump it into a 50 gal drum n sell it off once or twice a year.
    I never dun that but lookin back I shudda.That stuff mounts up quick.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Saginaw Michigan
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    161

    Default We had a guy using a City bucket truck to steal copper

    ground loops between transformers and such, When they finally figured it the sheriff found 1700 pounds worth of copper in his garage.

    The took his hooks as burglar tools.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
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    Ontario, Canada
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    I have a couple of stories. First, we were working on a main street last fall and had the rbd parked around the corner on a side street. Some fella bold as life stopped his car, jumped out up onto the rbd and stole a hand coil of #2 copper. I wouldn't have known except a private citizen stopped me and told me all about it. He even had the guys licence number. The kicker was I couldn't get the cops to even show up, it took 2 days and then they just went to the office. The second one happened when I worked as a rentalman to a local utility. I was at a satellite yard that happened to have a hole cut in the yard fence. Before they got it fixed a fella came in and helped himself, even left a trail to where he had parked. That next day he was taking his load to the scrapyard when he got stopped by the cops and readily admitted to stealing it. I kept saying he should clean up the mess he left, but guess what, I did.

  9. #9
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    Aug 2011
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    Indiana
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    I miss the time when I was doing telecom work at cell towers. We collected so much scrap #2 stranded and 4/0 battery cable from new equipment installation. Not to mention all the wire from decom work. A years work gained enough scrap to fill a fill size truck bed. I scraped it when copper/metal theft was already bad enough in Indiana that most yards had a cop on property to watch for thieves. Needless to say I was a bit nervous pulling up in my personal truck with all that wire.

  10. #10
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    Default all that glitters is not gold,but maybe its copper

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    now days anything that will sell is being stolen...........Lately in these parts,the local Walmarts are getting hit hard..............without the greeters watching the doors its x-mas in march for some.............2 days ago these young women tried to take 4 carts of baby formula.............full carts....21 dollars a small box...............in all they had over 3 thousand dollars in the carts......they didnt get those carts...........but they did get carts the weeks before...............Now when you die.............and somebody buys your grave a bronze vase...........the theieves are taking them also................thats really low going into a grave yard and stealing from a dead person............I knew a guy that was a contractor............he would order out coils of # 2 copper from the utility............the utility warehouseman and he would joke............smile a little............and say their goodbyes..........he needed that copper for his home................cause it surely wasnt for the jobs we were working on.

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