FBI Eyes Copper Theft at Brookhaven Lab

unsourced | 10-7-03

[Donna Lee Nardo]

FBI Eyes Copper Theft at Brookhaven Lab

By Dawn Wotapka

October 7, 2003, 10:50 PM EDT

It's not unusual for people to purloin bits of copper from Brookhaven National Laboratory to sell for cash. But authorities say they can't figure out how one of the biggest thefts of copper at the lab even happened.

Somehow, 150,000 pounds of cable coiled onto oversized spools and thousands of pieces of copper equipment with a value of about $86,000 vanished from the lab. And officials aren't even sure when.

During a Sept. 17 inventory, authorities noticed 100 of the copper spools missing. Further scrutiny revealed the additional thefts.

The FBI, who would not comment, was notified Sept. 19 after the inventory was completed. The agency was called because the theft involved federal property, and it began interviews Friday, a Brookhaven spokeswoman said.

Michael Bebon, Brookhaven's interim deputy director for operations, could not say when the missing materials were last seen.

"That's a matter that we're kind of leaving to the FBI," he said. "We're not making any assumptions about how it was taken and by what means."

A 5-acre facility, accessible to about 20 employees and used every few days, housed the cable as well as cable connectors, both used in physics experiments. About 2,000 of them are missing. Meanwhile, thieves also made off with about 200 pounds of copper blocks that were stored in a smaller, locked building that only a few people could enter, Bebon said.

"This is not cable that one would use in a home type of application, or even a commercial building," Bebon said.

The blocks and connectors contain trace amounts of radioactive cobalt- 60, a common metal used to kill food bacteria and in hospital radiotherapy, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"We wouldn't expect this to be hazardous, based on what we know," said John Millett, an EPA spokesman.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Does anyone think this can be more than simple theft? Any sinister uses for copper? Bombs?

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[Republicus2001]

Sounds like our neighborhood crackheads stealing recyclables

a slumlord downtown complained that he couldn't bring his bldg to code because the tweakers kept busting into the drywall to pull out the copper electrical -

[Poohbah]

Does anyone think this can be more than simple theft?

Hmm...

Any sinister uses for copper?

Bracelets that supposedly cure arthritis, but really don't?

Bombs?

Shaped-charge liners are made out of copper, but the amount needed is only a few ounces...

[Duramaximus]

Cornering the market on pennies by counterfeiting them. Just a guess. [/sarcasm]

[Prodigal Son]

Sounds like something I'd have done in my younger years.

[Axenolith]

Except the zinc ones are cheaper. Don't look to see them disappear anytime soon either, the Treasury makes about 50 million a year on them...

[1rudeboy]

I used to work for a steel and aluminum fabricator, and we caught some warehouse employees loading full coils of aluminum (stickers from the producer and all) into a truck. I don't know what the most painful thing was, learning that employees were stealing, or that they were only getting 7 cents a pound from the scrap-yard. (early 1990's)

[Petronski]

My nephew tells me of a tale of a student at his high school who stole a calcium rod from the chemlab. The perp was caught an hour or so later during another class when his pants pocket caught on fire.

I don't know enough about chemistry to understand it, but damn if that isn't funny, especially at a Catholic High School. Bwa ha ha ha ha....

[TaxRelief]

Copper carbide ammonia bright orange fireballs are lovely.

[MD_Willington_1976]

Pocket money...People steal copper it all the time, I have heard 2 darwin award stories of people stealing copper bus bars and copper wires from power utilities.

#1 An Ontario (in Canada) man was increasing his courage level with some alcohol one night and decided to enter a substation to steal some copper bus bars that were in a stack.

Result: Crispy stinky black ball of soot laying at the base of a substation transformer, seems he was slow roasted all night long.

#2 A russian man climbed a utility pole to steal a copper transmission wire ( I dont know why they used copper thats just what it was ).

Result; Crispy stinky humanoid soot blob attached to power pole and ladder.

[TaxRelief]

My guess is that kid was messing with Silver Acetylide which is made by combining 1 g of silver nitrate with 10 g of Calcium carbide (details omitted, do not try this at home). The result is extrememly volatile (sensitive to movement etc.)

[TaxRelief]

Seriously though, a good use for copper is to trick world leaders into thinking they own a lot of gold... Iraq's 'gold' mostly copper

[TaxRelief]

They steel it because their friends publically advertise their desire to buy it:

http://copper.importer.alibaba.com/

[TaxRelief]

They steel it because their friends publically advertise their desire to buy it:

http://copper.importer.alibaba.com/

[LibKill]

Copper is worth more at a recycler than aluminum. Junkies and crackheads have been known to steal copper cable from electrical company supply yards.

Sounds like employee theft to me.

[Petronski]

I'll make a note of it. I'd never heard of such volatility in calcium.

As far as my physical science education goes, I joked with my nephew that at least the stupid bastard hadn't tried to steal some phosphorus or sodium.

That much I do know.

[Migraine]

Could this be the famous Copper-Clapper Caper that Johnny Carson and Jack Webb were going on and on about?

[blam]

We used to have our gold and platinum 'targets' used in chip-making stolen.

[boris]

"My nephew tells me of a tale of a student at his high school who stole a calcium rod from the chemlab. The perp was caught an hour or so later during another class when his pants pocket caught on fire."

Alkali metals (calcium is one) are highly reactive with water. Sodium is even more so. One college trick is to take little slivers of sodium and put them in gelatin capsules (the pull-apart kind); then flip them into puddles while it is raining. Scares little old ladies and pooches.

Richard Feynman, while at Cornell, is reputed to have dropped a pound of sodium metal into one of the gorges...

--Boris