Wire and Cable Technology Blog

Just finding this out?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-26-copper-theft_x.htm

http://www.canada.com/globaltv/bc/news/story.html?id=23300fcd-ae18-48dc-bef1-43935f702213&k=99395

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080306-1055-bn06shocked.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1981794/posts

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2006/09/27/7_copper_thieves_electrocuted_since_july/2659/

http://www.komotv.com/news/archive/4163491.html

Where ya been? My friend fell into an manhole in Shanghai in 2003 because theives stole the cover, and he wasn't scrupulouslywatching the pavement.

ID requirement isn'tlikely to deter people who think that cutting power lines is a win win transaction.

milo

In developing nations fiber optic cables are being ripped out of the ground and off poles after being mistaken as copper-based. About the only benefit to the thieves, where salvage is concerned, is the corrugated steel jacket on some of the armored cables. Other uses are found as clotheslines, well lines and as other, miscellaneous substitutes for rope.

For a bit levity (well, to me, at least) I offer the following historical account from China:

China's cable firms fight deadly turf war

by Oliver August in Shanying - May 30, 2002

CLAD in a blue China Telecom jacket proclaiming, We protect the nations cables, Hao Dawei sets off at sunrise from his parents mudbrick home in Shanying to ride his motorcycle along the route of his state-owned companys main cable to Beijing, 300 miles to the west. On the road to Huairen he finds 100 workers digging a trench right on top of the China Telecom line. He jumps off his bike. Stop immediately, he shouts. You'll cut our cable.

The gang glare at him. Hao Dawei knows the type. They work for one of the many rival telecom companies who are laying their own cables. He calls for backup, but the five colleagues who arrive within minutes are no match for the workers. Soon 20 of them are beating the 26-year-old patrol rider as a crouches in the grass. His colleagues flee and he ends up in hospital having stitches in his head. End.

If it cost so much use beryllium copper on the most critical and let the thieves destroy their tools. Any scrap dealer will be able to identify 200ksi copper and if they use a torch to cut it 1/3 will die from the fumes with no Known cure.

Brad

Sounds like a plan that will cull the herd of copper theives.

This is old news. Thirty years ago, while working for a copper company, we had someone chop the 480v 3 phase power line to a remote monitoring station; to try and steal the cable. We found the hatchet he/they tried to use, with a third of the edge blasted away. Fortunately (for them) the handle was wood. Never did find the thieves, and yes, we did check the local hospitals.

"Missouri is attempting to stem the tide with laws that would require scrap dealers to obtain ID from sellers of copper or aluminum worth at least $50."

Sounds like a pawn shop setup to me. It will give the ability to lift someones license - once they are caught. But it is still just creating a black market opportunity.

I recall that severe penalties are imposed if the value of the damage exceeds a certain amount ($500, I think), with compulsory jail sentences required. That makes sense, as just a mere attempted theft (i.e. nothing removed) can cause certain industries thousands or more $$ per hour. Also, just having an ID is only worth it if a copy of such ID document is required to be kept, preferably with proof that it was actually the document of the person delivering. But then you'll get ID fraud too, with false & stolen IDs.

Technology alone won't solve it. We've replaced around 1000 km of copper wire with ACSR, and some 100 km of Al wire, also with ACSR, but the theft then just moves from my company to my neighbour. So eventually, we all have ACSR. And now they steel aluminium railings from bridges, rails and fastenings from railway lines, and then the theft moves to goods-in-transit theft, vehicle hi-jacking (car-jacking to USA). You have to catch them in action & put them in jail for a lonng time. These are professional syndicates, complete with branch managers, monthly targets, service level agreements with scrap yards, etc.

Mere laws won't make a difference - dedicated people (politicians & lawmakers making effective laws, vigilant police, able prosecuters, involved public) will.

No more laws that are unenforceable, please, at least not in the US. When they try to steal high voltage wire, at least sometimes it thins the herd. Again, this seems to be an exaggerated response to what seems to be a limited problem. I've been on several large scale industrial construction jobs and worked as an electrician's helper on residential jobs and we never had a problem with installed copper theft. Now we did keep close watch on supplies and scrap, since the scrap was going to be the income for our kegger party at the end of the job. Sadly, I had to return to school before the job completed.

To a previous post, what is ACSR?

ACSR = Aluminium Conductor Steel Re-inforced, used on overhead lines. It is basically a few steel strands with the Al (aluminium) wire wound around it, originally to increase strength for longer spans, I'd assume. In our case it works as a theft deterrent, as it is more difficult to cut through than plain soft Al. Also, the scrap yards don't take it as-is, and the thieves must unwind all the Al strands first, which is (not yet!) worth doing.

If they start stealing this, we run out of options. Anyone know of un-recyclable metals! I'm looking at the high-temp conductors to see if their reinforcing would make them less prone to theft. It also would mean thinner conductors, mmm.....

I recently sold about 7 tons of scrap from around my metal Fab. shop for the first time in several years. When I took my first load I was amazed to see 20 loads ahead of me waiting to be unloaded. There was people in every type of veheicle from small cars and trucks with scrap in there trunks to the bigger loads like mine. In North Georgia the scrap vendors make you give a drivers licence and fill out and sign paper work before they will buy any scrap from you. I am sure this is so they can cover there tail in case they buy some questionable scrap (new or good used wire, plumbing fixtures etc) It is a very regulated deal and they look at every load that you sell to see if it looks "stolen and will refuse to buy it sometimes. The scrap guy told me that they do this because so many drug users are out stealing scrap since the prices are up on metals.

piewelder

A theif/theives stole the copper piping out of the basement in a house I was selling from a low value estate. It is all nonsense! Some people will do hundreds of dollars in damage to steal $50 worth of copper pipe.

Although this blog appears to be a month old, I just came across it and decided to add my 2 penny worth. The theft of low voltage cables is a severe problem all over the world at the moment. In fact, the Polish company that I work for, recently developed and patented a low cost monitoring system specifically aimed at helping combat this problem. It's not just telecommunication lines that are affected, apart from working with the French/Polish national telcom company, we've also just began installing the system into some of the Polish energy companies. Even the Russian National railway company has approached us. It appears that this problem isn't going away anytime soon and with the unpresidented worldwide development of the traditionally poorer countries, it looks like it will get worse. Mike

Old blogs never die, huh? I guess not... Time for my 2 cents worth. There is a story about a guy going into one of our local power companies switiching yards and trying to cut a bare copper ground wire. Why? Don't know... needed to get a fix or something. Well, he cut that bare copper that just happened to be a bond jumper to the ground grid off of a big as$ capacitor bank and blew himself up. Want a fix? There you go . A job that I was on was robbed of the amount of wire that was rising up out of the ground out of the underground risers and into the switch gear (a distance of 1-2 feet). Luckily for the idiot thief, the gear was not energized. The problem is that the wire pull to the gear was SEVERAL HUNDRED long, so as you can tell it the pull was wasted and needed to be repulled. Thieves suck!