Preventing Wiring and Cable Theft

Kal,

Option 1:

Replace the cables, remove the lamps (this will only need to be short term) and over ride the Photo-cell.

For the next 2-3 weeks you will need to sweep up the bodies, but the cable will be where you left it.

Once the body count drops put the bulbs back in and it will likely be left alone.

Option 2:

Place Photo Cells on all poles with a local contactor in each unit.

This way the cable is always hot and unlikely to be removed (see effect of Option1)

After the first time, they wont do it again.

Regards,
Sapper.

Kal, instead of worrying about the wire you are losing you should perhaps concentrate on your efforts on running your lights on oh say 4160v and then rejoice in the multiple public services you are performing.... one; having bright and shining lighting for the roads and public places and two; quickly and efficiently boiling off the bad parts of the gene pool and as an added benefits the resulting ashes should be able to provide fertilizer for your green projects around said lights....

This is a great idea except that some wily type thieves aren't afraid to play with live power. If I were doing the snatching I would cut the hot wire and ground it to the pole in order to trip the breaker which can be done fairly safely with little more than a pair of leather gloves, especially if your dealing with 120v 15-20A. If you know where the power is coming from (should be easy enough to guess in most cases), start at the pole closest to the power and you may get away with only making the electric light show once and then it's free sailing and off to the scrap yard.

Your best bet to stop this is to catch the perpetrators. We were having a similar problem, we got the police involved, on the third attempt to strip our lot the cops caught them and voila, no more disappearing wires. Of course, if the police aren't working out for you, you can use other 'gotcha' devices like infrared cameras, or, my favorite, a very angry rottweiler and an unbalanced gun toting hillbilly.

All joking aside, if they are using the same approach as was used here, they came in through the cover plate at the bottom of the pole. If you secure this cover with something a little more daunting than a security screw (or hex bolt) you should stop all but the most determined thieves, and you're not gonna stop them with hardware.

Put individual photocells atop each pole. Same effect as 'option 1' above, without loosing the lighting.

Put non reversing screws on the access plate.

Replace the Copper conductors with Aluminum conductors. You will have to increase the size of the wiring according because Copper is capable of handling larger loads than Aluminum (See NEC Table 310.16), but they will find that the monies returned for their hours of labor to steal / recycle it will not be worth it.

Well since it seems that you have new wires to most the poles have the covers tack welded in place. You shouldn't need to get into them soon. Instruct whom every does the welding that the tacks need to be so they can be removed and the covers removed.

Or have you approached the pole manufacture with your dilemma. I would think that others would have similar problems if the covers that easy to get off and the manufacture may have a cover that can be secured.

If the cover is screwed on have you tried tamper resistant screws.

Then with today's technology video surveillance to catch the culprit they can do much stealing in a jail cell. Place camera in pole behind plate they open it up got ya.

I like your post, that will probably fix the problem completely.

Furthermore, why does he not have a simple siren, connected to permanent mains, with a switch on each cover......it will be cheaper in the end......one siren, near to where someone is during the day....a simple burglar alarm type of thing.......

Screwing down the covers with one of these special screws that are keyed to one special socket only (similar to that for alumium wheels......) might also be an idea.....

Thats my 2 cents worth....

Install a breakaway plug on each wire a few inches from the handhole box. That way if they pull on the wire, the plug will disconnect and all they'll get is three or four inches of wire. It'll be a hassle for you, but it reduces the motivation quite a bit. After five or six tries they'll give up.

fill the ends of the conduit with silicone gasket or other adhesive

1. Sharpshooters with night vision scopes.

2. Deadly spiders.

3. Deadly snakes.

4. Bear traps.

5. Bungie pits.

6. Booby traps, explosive with trip wire, land mine, ect.

Don't let your thugs come to Africa. Here our master thieves will teach them how to steel the poles as well, not just the wire. We hav regular theft of.....oh yes, high tension overhead cable off the live mail lines between cities. Every other week a few get toasted but that does not stop the racket either. Hey our guys can steel the milk out of your coffee!

Some of the africans must already have come to North America or maybe it's the other way around. At anyrate locally, energized power cables are routinely being stolenhereabouts. Maybe the electricians are part of the ripoff gang.

That's hillarious!!!!!!! However it does leave me feeling quite naive!!!!!

Have one of these thieves impaled on the same pole with a legend.

Take a look at the wire stuff that holds a control unit from an overhead crane. I have no idea what it's called, but it prevents the crane controller from being yanked out of it's place.

Install a pressure sensitive switch that will activate an alarm when the manhole cover is removed.

Place the same ink pockets that the bank use in case of robbery. Once the cable is pulled out, the thieve will be covered in red ink making him easy to identify and prosecute.

When he pulls one end, you pull the other real hard and slip the son of a gun inside the conduit.

Theft of copper conductor is a problem all over the USA and apparently the world. They steal it energized or not. They especially like to steal the neutral and ground conductors. I heard of thieves stealing the entire ground mat in a utility substation.

I agree with some of the other ideas:

Keep cable energized all of the time

Replace copper with aluminum conductor

Use direct bury cable only

Secure all access points to the conductor

Video surveillance may help if they steal from the same area repeatedly.

Have you thought of switching to gas lit poles

Don't be daft Johnny,

they'd just tap into the gas and have the wives do a roast while the steal the balance of wires, pipes or whatever!

Chas

I would take care of the situation by padlocking the manhole openings. This way they have no access underground whatsoever and it is not that expensive compared to cables being stolen. People are stealing copper, lead, palladium from catalytic converters etc. because of the value of the metal. Look at Gold prices!

Install a manholed access point (lockable) some where between light poles and clamp the cable underground soas to prevent cable movement in either direction. Authorised access can still be made by unclamping the cable at this "concealed" point. Unless thieves utilise a mechanical puller, they will be unable to remove the cable by hand and will not realise the clamp, thinking only that the cable has jammed in the conduit.

A permanent solution such as this or similar must be put in place as it will just be a matter of time before the next thief will come along.

your lighting control is on automatic mode.My suggestion is power is switched "off" on that mode one power line should "on"mode for alarm on the "Siren" which are situated in your office & Police station to alert, when thief try to wires/cables are being stolen then alarm raised in your office & Police station. I think you saved your costly wire/cables. Regards Pradip Sarkar

How do you want the (one) live line to make into an alarm mode with others being dead lines in the same duct?