So much theft going on for metals. Many streetlights get robbed for their copper wire. The new 6th street bridge in LA gets routinely stripped of wires. Most of the older bridges have been robbed of their old brass lamps already. Many brass plaques in parks or on infrastructure has been stolen.
What is interesting is that this has been ramping up just in the last couple of years. Some of the brass has been out in public for decades but is only now getting stolen hand over fist. I wonder what the impetus has been these days that wasn’t there in the past?
Presumably multi-causal (economic desperation, rising metal costs, perception that the crime won't be punished, getting the idea from others, etc.) but at least one component is probably the rise of high-powered, battery-operated tools. Battery tools are so much better today than they were even 10 years ago. In the picture from the article you can see the guy using a battery-powered reciprocating saw. Not long ago, an approach like that wouldn't have been feasible.
To your point, you can get a Stihl Cutquik TSA 230 Cordless Cut-Off Saw for ~$500-600, and this will make quick work of anything getting in the way of scraping. I've cut through thick steel with it like its butter (and the only portable way to go faster is something like a plasma torch, depending on material and thickness).
I helped cut off the tail cone of a Boeing 747 (former United tail #882) using of those at the Tupelo MS boneyard a few years ago. Well, actually I drew a sharpie line and said “cut here” and someone did.
There’s a pic of the result of our handiwork on Airliners.net, I have much cooler and closer pictures with sparks flying and non-OSHA approved crane rigging being employed that I unfortunately cannot share, but yes, hot knife through butter described it.
Planes are basically made of beer cans though. Sawzalls really struggle with thicker material because the reciprocating nature makes for fuck all chip evacuation.
Ironically those battery-powered tools used to steal metal were often stolen themselves, either shoplifted from hardware stores or taken out of construction workers' trucks. Local law enforcement doesn't take those minor thefts seriously and this causes more problems.
It's hard to impress upon people how big a change in capabilities there was when things like Milwaukee's M18 line came out and became common. I can remember when it was unimaginable to have a battery powered sawzall worth a damn, and it's even crazier to think the battery powered M18 impact guns now often will do better than most pneumatic ones. The 18 volt lithium tools (Milwaukee, DeWalt, Makita, Bosch, etc.) are everywhere and cheap now and kind are revolutionary in what kind of stuff they enable.
I went to an NHRA drag race event this year and watched some mechanics rebuilding an engine between races, I was surprised to see them using M18 impacts, but that’s a hell of a lot easier than dragging around a compressor and a bunch of lines!
Yup, all sorts of bike locks are totally useless now.
In the EU they make hard-disk manufacturers pay tax for the inevitable copyright theft. I think that's nonsensical but I daydream of having that for makers of these things (and glass bottles).
Maybe that needs a sawzall. But getting into a utility box only took hand tools. Only recently after thefts have gotten so bad have they been welding these boxes shut. When they stole all the historic lights off the Hyperion Bridge in LA, it looks like they were merely unbolted:
Im wondering of regulatory enforcement on the metals dealers has gone down. The last time Southern California had problems like this they added required identification and thumbprints for any seller at the dealers. Presumably there have been workarounds since that allow stolen metals to be moved
Demand is up and supply is increasingly getting more costly. Ripe conditions for this kind of behavior.
When it comes to a lot of metals it is kind of amazing how some of the biggest mines of this stuff are some of the oldest. It makes sense as we go for the low hanging fruit first and they are the biggest deposits.
Alas, as an aggregate, the ratio of overburden on mining has been going up for almost a century now and it is starting to catch up in some materials. Copper, nickle being a big two. Iron... not so much. So far we have managed to 'Red queen' ourselves out of the situation by throwing massive amount of resources (mostly energy), but one does wonder what happens if we even hit an energy plateau. Many have speculated, most are wrong, time will tell.
In my area, we've taken to replacing brass hydrant fixtures with hardened resin covers and such, because they were constantly being stolen.
And as much as that is an issue in itself, gotta love the scrap metal dealers who see someone show up with a shopping trolley full of brass hydrant covers and "sure, no problem here".
$4.60 is not an all time high for copper. Copper has been around this price for a while. It’s traded within about a 10% band for the last year. It had some fluctuations prior to that, but there hasn’t been any kind of long extended run up in price.
Some local plugs are closer to fences as they will take pretty much anything of value. Recently heard of someone taking a high end bottle of cologne or expensive bottles of wine. Whether the plug enjoys the product themselves or is able to turn them around somewhere else is more information than I want to know.
If you get lucky you can pull out hundreds of feet of wire, the wire is in conduit that goes from pole to pole and it’s usually decent sized wire to account for voltage drop. The city where I live is using aluminum wire for streetlights now after having miles and miles of copper stolen.
What is interesting is that this has been ramping up just in the last couple of years. Some of the brass has been out in public for decades but is only now getting stolen hand over fist. I wonder what the impetus has been these days that wasn’t there in the past?