[TheForge] Price of Copper

[xlch58 at swbell.net]

Jerry Smith wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I thought scrap copper was like a buck something a
> pound, today I found out it's like $2.50 a pound.
> We had somebody in the middle of the night drop a span
> of telephone trunk, and actually did it very
> professionally. From this mills people were walking
> out with rolls of copper wire and other stuff.
>
> So why is copper prices going thru the roof? I
> actually make stuff out of copper as part of my work.
>
> Jerry
>   
Why -- China.   Around here they are stripping it out of light poles on 
the interstate with a truck and a chain.   They are cutting the 
evaperator lines off of your ac unit, and now even stealing the AC 
compressor as well.  I have an empty rental property with a tractor 
behind it.  They cut the battery cables off the tractor and the power 
lines running to the outbuildings, the lines to the Airconditioner and 
would have had that too if the neighbor hadn't walked up.    We have had 
a few homes in the country stripped of their aluminum siding over a 
weekend.   One church has replaced their AC units three times.   I work 
in the power industry and it is getting  bad there as  well.   Damn near 
impossible to find a utility pole with an intact grounding strap in 
downtown.  They are also stealing the aluminum covers off the lighting 
standards faster than they can be replaced.  At one utility, thieves 
broke into a substation and stole the grounding mat.   About once a 
month we hear in the industry about someone frying themselves on a 12kv 
line or higher trying to steal something.   I just have to pop a beer 
and celebrate every time.   If all that weren't smarmy enough, we had a 
husband and wife team stealing vases and bronze plaques from several 
local cemeteries until a groundsman at one cemetery caught them and 
blocked their exit.   Their car was full of purloined cemetery 
furniture.  Dallas has a law now that you have to leave a thumbprint and 
a license and wait to get your money for scrap copper.  So they have to 
drive an extra thirty minutes to get rid of it around here.   Eventually 
they will have to take the same steps they did in the thirties to 
protect railway rail. 

Charles