"Sir, six cinder blocks are missing."
"There will be no hospital, then... I'll tell the children."

/Simpsons

Every couple of months I read a story about a thief who fried himself trying to steal copper wire. Always brings a smile to my face.

This is what the poor do in third world countries to get by. Welcome to your future America.

KinetiKiteniK: This is what the poor do in third world countries to get by. Welcome to your future America.

this is what lazy welfare receiving drug addicted attractive and successful African-Americans do

corrected that for ya

copper?

KinetiKiteniK: This is what the poor do in third world countries to get by. Welcome to your future America.

Its also what brainless douchebags do who'd rather steal then work. Welcome to the lazy.

LOCNAR69: "this is what lazy welfare receiving drug addicted attractive and successful African-Americans do

corrected that for ya"

Not many of your suspects in Vancouver, not much exposed copper either. 'STRONGLY REPUBLICAN VIEWS' indeed.

In Hawaii, copper thieves keep stealing electrical wiring so parts of the highway are dark, and in some cases, have remained dark for years. I seriously don't know how you get away with it. Or why cameras or other equipment aren't used to bust the shiat out of these asshole thieves.

Hmm... Asshole Thieves should open for Butthole Surfers someday.

/hung over

Thar's copper in them thar hydrants. Copper rush 2k8!

/this is part of an unsettling trend

Somebody stole my doorknob.

Unbelievable.

OK while it is a sad day when you can't leave something of nearly zero monetary value, but substantially valuable to the community laying around without it being stolen, how about not leaving removable pieces on fire hydrants and keep them on the firetrucks with the hose?

Then I guess I'll Cu in hell.

That meth's a helluva drug!

Approves

chilled wren: OK while it is a sad day when you can't leave something of nearly zero monetary value, but substantially valuable to the community laying around without it being stolen, how about not leaving removable pieces on fire hydrants and keep them on the firetrucks with the hose?

Yeah, that would be a good preventative measure. But also, why is copper used for those parts, anyway? Seems kinda odd... Doesn't copper corrode rather easily?

Pullarius: Then I guess I'll Cu in hell.

Nerd. (Funny, though.)

I am hearing now about people having catalytic converters stolen right out from underneath their cars and trucks. They go out and start the car in the morning and hear the horrendous noise of straight exhaust. The catalytic converters contain small amounts of rarer metals like platinum and a few others. They are very expensive to replace.

Wouldn't it just be easier to charge the dirtbag recyclers? I thought recieving stolen property was supposed to be illegal?

Something needs to be done at the scrapyards. They're the ones that are supposed to be watching out for suspicious activity. Often, they don't care, and are happy to receive stolen metal, from construction sites, public property, etc.

Random inspections of scrapyards would be nice. If you have stolen property, you get charged with receiving it. I've seen what goes on at scrapyards. The people supplying scrapyards are almost all contractors with legally obtained metal. The rest...

Crack is whack.

//can't believe no one's said it yet

chilled wren: firetrucks with the hose?

Firetrucks with hoes, you say?



Ohhhh, hoSE... my bad.

b..but....that's $40!!

Here in Las Vegas we have meth users stripping entire buildings of copper. The Huntridge Theater, a local historical landmark, has no wiring or plumbing because of copper thieves.

xBodo99: chilled wren: OK while it is a sad day when you can't leave something of nearly zero monetary value, but substantially valuable to the community laying around without it being stolen, how about not leaving removable pieces on fire hydrants and keep them on the firetrucks with the hose?

Yeah, that would be a good preventative measure. But also, why is copper used for those parts, anyway? Seems kinda odd... Doesn't copper corrode rather easily?

Pullarius: Then I guess I'll Cu in hell.

Nerd. (Funny, though.)

Very good. There isn't, in fact, any copper used on a fire hydrant.
In fact, the only Easily removable parts of a hydrant (other than for someone whipping out tools and disassembling the thing, of course) are the caps on the hose connections.
Those are just regular cast pieces and would not, of course, render the hydrant inoperable should they be stolen.

Since the reporter does the usual lousy job of giving any accurate information, I can only guess that the local fire department had installed some adapters on the hose connections on the hydrant to convert from the factory size (2 1/2" "hose connections", 4 1/2" and 5 1/4" are the universal standards) to fit whatever oddball hose sizes they chose to carry on the truck.
THOSE adapters are typically made of brass and can be removed rather easily by hand.

My parents put a couple of stick on air fresheners in the bathroom (worth about 50 cents or so)of their restaurant and people still stole those. People will steal anything.

that is farked up. :( stupid humans

Hey, that's almost two gallons of gasoline apiece!

submitter: Firefighters unable to save house because copper fittings worth mere $8 had been stolen from all five fire hydrants on block

Subby: are you saying that it would be OK if hydrant's missing piece was worth $800.00? Or $80,000.00.

It's still theft of public property.

One time somebody stole my thunder.

/got nuttin'

I hope somebody is paying attention to this phenomenon and realizing the spike in commodity, oil and metal prices isn't a coincidence. The federal reserve knows this is a consequence of lower the funds rate, but do it anyway.

farkwell: submitter: Firefighters unable to save house because copper fittings worth mere $8 had been stolen from all five fire hydrants on block

Subby: are you saying that it would be OK if hydrant's missing piece was worth $800.00? Or $80,000.00.

It's still theft of public property.

I think you missed the point completely.

blacksho89:That meth's a helluva drug!


And not only for copper and other metal thieves. A few years ago, just outsie Des Moines, there was some guy who was trying to steal anhydrous amonia from a farmers' co-op in order to make meth. He broke off the valve and the escaping anhydrous burned off half of his peener. Three days after getting out of the hospital and meeting bail, he was arrested trying to steal anhydrous from the same co-op.

oBodo99: actually iron and steel corrode more readily than copper and its alloys, unless conditions are extrememly acidic. That's why we find more copper and bronze items from antiquity than iron.

farkwell
Subby: are you saying that it would be OK if hydrant's missing piece was worth $800.00? Or $80,000.00.

It's still theft of public property.

The message that I got was that this was worse than typical, because someone risked so much (to others) for so little (for himself) . Anyone can threaten the safety of others for $80,000 (business as usual in the US). It takes a particularly low individual to risk other's lives for $8.

As a follow-up to my last comment, I do consider it worse to steal $8 worth of stuff than to steal $80,000 in a case like this.

Which is more of an insult - telling someone their safety isn't worth $80,000 to you, or telling them that their safety isn't worth the cost of a decent burger?

cyt0plas: As a follow-up to my last comment, I do consider it worse to steal $8 worth of stuff than to steal $80,000 in a case like this.

Which is more of an insult - telling someone their safety isn't worth $80,000 to you, or telling them that their safety isn't worth the cost of a decent burger?

How hungry am I in this hypothetical?

LOCNAR69: KinetiKiteniK: This is what the poor do in third world countries to get by. Welcome to your future America.

this is what lazy welfare receiving drug addicted attractive and successful African Caucasian-Americans do

corrected that for ya


FTFY

Je5tEr: cyt0plas: As a follow-up to my last comment, I do consider it worse to steal $8 worth of stuff than to steal $80,000 in a case like this.

Which is more of an insult - telling someone their safety isn't worth $80,000 to you, or telling them that their safety isn't worth the cost of a decent burger?

How hungry wasted am I in this hypothetical?

FTFY.

been a firefighter for 20 years and i have never seen or heard of a hydrant with copper fittings

cyt0plas: The message that I got was that this was worse than typical, because someone risked so much (to others) for so little (for himself) . Anyone can threaten the safety of others for $80,000 (business as usual in the US). It takes a particularly low individual to risk other's lives for $8.

Frankly it seems a bit worse to risk other people's safety by not making certain your stove was OFF before leaving your house, but maybe that's just me.

And nobody noticed the hydrants were suddenly missing something? Or more likely figured that someone else would do something about it rather than pick up a phone themselves and report it.

And if it was limited to missing parts on only that block, who wants to bet it was someone's kid on that block responsible for it?

Killer Miller: I am hearing now about people having catalytic converters stolen right out from underneath their cars and trucks. They go out and start the car in the morning and hear the horrendous noise of straight exhaust. The catalytic converters contain small amounts of rarer metals like platinum and a few others. They are very expensive to replace.

I saw something on that on America's Most Wanted a few weeks back. A couple of guys jacked the owner of a savage yard in the dead of the night and killed him because he had cash on him; before the segment, one of the correspondents explained why people steal catalytic converters. It's all stupid, especially when people's lives and property are at risk because some hairbrained idiot stole semi-worthless hydrant fixtures. I hope whoever did it gets pissed on just like dogs piss on those hydrants.

/from family of firefighters

elektronic: Je5tEr: cyt0plas: As a follow-up to my last comment, I do consider it worse to steal $8 worth of stuff than to steal $80,000 in a case like this.

Which is more of an insult - telling someone their safety isn't worth $80,000 to you, or telling them that their safety isn't worth the cost of a decent burger?

How hungry wasted am I in this hypothetical?

FTFY.

Actually, come to think of it, other people's safety is primarily their responsibility, so I'd rather have the burger. (turn off your stove you idiots!)

But what is really the issue is don't take shiat that doesn't belong to you and who the hell is responsible for deploying devices that won't be supervised that could be so easily rendered useless.

/Now where's my burger, I'm starving

KinetiKiteniK: This is what the poor do in third world countries to get by. Welcome to your future America.

When it gets too bad, we will simply annex Canada.

Welcome to YOUR foocha.

The article says the fittings were copper, but the photo says brass is much more likely.

GET YOUR SHIAT STRAIGHT DAILY PRESS!
/ok, moving on

No 'ironic' tag?

Pleasant surprise...

cyt0plas: As a follow-up to my last comment, I do consider it worse to steal $8 worth of stuff than to steal $80,000 in a case like this.

Which is more of an insult - telling someone their safety isn't worth $80,000 to you, or telling them that their safety isn't worth the cost of a decent burger?

I enjoy the fact that your universal unit for quantifying worth is a unit of money.Im weird and a minority of one though so carry on.

I wonder if the scumbag who stole the bronze fittings thay cost somebody a house was homeless? I kinda hope so. It would give the story a karma-like poetic balance.

Yeah, I don't think this is attractive and successful african americans. More likely, caucasian-refuse.

Brass.

8 bucks worth of brass.

I think it's ok to shoot anybody stripping public property for metals, on sight.

You see that poor man? Lost everything, weeping over a photo of his mom and dad. Some slimeball needed the 8.00 brass fittings from the one available source of water to fight fires.

I blame China.

bunner: Brass.

8 bucks worth of brass.

I think it's ok to shoot anybody stripping public property for metals, on sight.

You see that poor man? Lost everything, weeping over a photo of his mom and dad. Some slimeball needed the 8.00 brass fittings from the one available source of water to fight fires.

Yes, $8 of brass that shouldn't have been allowed to be there in the first place (who apporoved that?), and probably removed by some kid who isn't old enough to be allowed to cross the street (since only the hydrants on that block were missing them).

And I have a hard time feeling too bad for the guy if he can be so irresposible with FIRE as to leave his stove on when leaving the house.

Yeah we should tailor emergency services to not tempt thieves and to choose which situations that require them are worthy. : )

If caught the said thieves should be burned at the stake.