- Jan 17, 2017
- 16,148
- 27,115
Copper Thieving ..
- Thread starter mat200
- Start date
Good lord. I know thick wire is expensive but who goes to that much trouble and risk to steal ten feet of it?
sebastiantombs
Known around here
That's 30 feet of what looked like 3/0 to me. Probably weighs 10-15 pounds. Around here they keep stealing the ground wire off the poles themselves, about ten feet of #6 solid is all they can get to. One of these days either they'll get lit up or the whole neighborhood will go down with a lightning surge or ground interruption. I've called the utility a number of times. Sometimes they come out and replace it right away, this time they haven't bothered.
At tower sites, they will cut out 4" of #10 ground wire if it's there. I have seen many (100+) grounds that they
have done it to at the same site. With what they got, you could put it all in a 3 gallon bucket. With paint all over it,
they would have got junk price for it. It costs several thousand dollars to replace and cad weld it all back together,
only to lose it again in a month or two.
Just to get to the wiring, I have seen large cabinets torn open time after time, just to find out it's all aluminum inside.
The amount of effort required, it would be a lot less to get a job and work a couple hours.
They opened up a couple fiber pedestals and cut the fiber on both ends, pulled over a quarter mile out. I would have loved to
be a fly on the wall when they took it to the salvage place to cash it in.
have done it to at the same site. With what they got, you could put it all in a 3 gallon bucket. With paint all over it,
they would have got junk price for it. It costs several thousand dollars to replace and cad weld it all back together,
only to lose it again in a month or two.
Just to get to the wiring, I have seen large cabinets torn open time after time, just to find out it's all aluminum inside.
The amount of effort required, it would be a lot less to get a job and work a couple hours.
They opened up a couple fiber pedestals and cut the fiber on both ends, pulled over a quarter mile out. I would have loved to
be a fly on the wall when they took it to the salvage place to cash it in.
Disappointing. I was kinda hoping to see video captured of the krispy kritter getting his just due.
Flintstone61
Known around here
Am i the only one who ever cut a live cord on a dead box fan? Krispy krittered the side cutters. 
sebastiantombs
Known around here
I "disappeared" a screwdriver shank working in a live panel, 200 amp service and poof. Wandered around half blind for a little while, too. I did only have one hand in the panel at the time.
Flintstone61
Known around here
Nuclear strength light at that! jesus. I thought I was bad enough from the pliers....oh oh oh wait here's a beauty. I disappeared one 1/2 the circle of a box end wrench. grounded the wrench on the wall from a postive battery post on an M113 APC @ Ft. Polk LA.
95F 80% Humidity. Wired 24 volt in Series, it was so HOT inside the Track sweat was running off us. I had to grab the wrench and fling it in a nano second as it arced on the wall. burnt my hand a little. But the real scary shit was the batteries started bubbling real loud. we hauled ass!
95F 80% Humidity. Wired 24 volt in Series, it was so HOT inside the Track sweat was running off us. I had to grab the wrench and fling it in a nano second as it arced on the wall. burnt my hand a little. But the real scary shit was the batteries started bubbling real loud. we hauled ass!
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Ditto for me.
On a smaller scale I've vaporized a few multimeter probes trying to measure voltage when the + lead was in the 10 amp socket. My newer meter beeps when the lead is in the 10A socket and voltage is selected on the switch.
