Thieves in California are now stealing fire hydrants and everyone is asking the exact same question that you're asking

NotTheBee.com ^ | 6-4-2024 | Jesse James

[servo1969]

Even for crime-ridden, rapidly-descending-into-anarchy California, this is pretty crime-ridden, rapidly-descending-into-anarchy California:

A series of fire hydrant thefts in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of South Los Angeles has left residents without a working hydrant near their homes.

The thefts of four hydrants near the intersection of 82nd Street and Hooper Avenue mean the block doesn't have even one operating hydrant, KTLA's Jennifer McGraw reports.

It's no joke. The crooks are literally ripping the hydrants off the street and taking them away.

Now, you likely have just one question to ask after seeing that hydrant stump in the sidewalk:

Namely: "Why would someone steal a fire hydrant? Is it actually profitable to do so?"

[servo1969]

[Vermont Lt]

150 pounds of ……nothing.

Go figure.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Looks like the economy is worse than the mainstream media is reporting.

[Twotone]

Because someone intends to start an uncontrollable fire...?

[plain talk]

Why? Maybe the gangsta’s think they look cool in their man-cave. It could be as simple as that.

[Obadiah]

Article suggests the 150lb hydrant is worth about $6 bucks scrap. I don’t know how much meth that would buy.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Dindus don't know that fire hydrants aren't made of copper

“Din know nuffins.”

[joshua c]

maybe they should be asking the scrap yards if they have bought any fire hydrants lately

appears the scrap yard should have called the authorities to begin with

[READINABLUESTATE]

Cast iron $176 /ton
Brass $1.05 /Lb

[Robert A Cook PE]

The illegal armies imported by today’s Obama-Biden administration need to use the connected water pipes as rocket tubes for their next 8000 missile bombardment.
These fire hydrant tops make perfect rocket nose cones.

[Reno89519]

Who is buying this scrap metal?

[TonyinLA]

$6 to an illegal freshly in-country is more than he started the day with. It’s also enough for a daily fetanyl fix.

Also, when criminals go through such effort for measly returns, is it they who are stupid or that is what’s left for easy pickings? Retail shoplifting is getting hard with all the stores closed up.

[ConservativeMind]

My question is why these thieves weren’t shot.

[PGR88]

Sounds like its just straight-up vandalism.

There are people with no investment or stake in society, simply happy to see things destroyed.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

We are rapidly becoming South Africa.

The South Africans at least could flee to America.

Now a lot of them are going back because it is just as bad here.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Dindu sez: “I thought it was a Prius cat converter. It sure was heavy!”

[ProtectOurFreedom]

For the math challenged:

Cast iron $0.088 / lb
Brass $1.05 / lb

Brass is worth twelve times cast iron.

[A Navy Vet]

There have been reports of lots of new type thefts as the politicians allowed mass emigration in the USA. This is what happens when a nation lets in the third world and/or reduce law enforcement and prosecution. England and other nations in Europe are experiencing it and just now trying to fight back.

It's our turn now. Example: Newly created EV charging stations have a problem with copper thieves. I doubt the thieves are from the ghetto. They don't have that type of energy or creativity.

[BipolarBob]

Any scrap yard with a fire hydrant gets an automatic $10,000 fine would cool off the demand for this market.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The retail “smash and grab” theft are highly organized and led by crime bosses who dispatch their low-IQ foot soldiers to do the actual work.

That is probably true of all types of crime. You just have to be a heavy who follows the boss’s orders.