Baltimore, MD Light poles vanishing

Drudgereport.com ^

[SaltyJoe]

Hmmm, if I were a criminal or worse, a foreign intelligence agent wanting to run ops in America that are counter to the American Dream, Freedom, etc. I would find a "blue" city in a "blue" state, close to Washington D.C. (about an hour drive even in traffic) as well as any major federal agency that has 3 letters for a name and even close military bases of all branches of the US Armed Services, that has a high drug abuse rate, and where it's easy to higher a drug addict to do my killing/stealing/breaking/spying for me.

Were there security cameras on top of any of these poles?

If you were in charge of protecting the top brass of our gov't, would you drive POTUS through Baltimore if Fredericksburg were a better egress? Double super suspicion--do you feel channeled to go certain directions instead of having ALL options open? Triple suspicion--how easy is it to close down a North/South tunnel/bridge and stop traffic from VA to DE? Answer, one prank call...and then prank calls until no one believes in the "crying wolf" ruse.

I'm sure Maryland is a good state, but it seems like Baltimore is the tail wagging the dog. It sounds like King County/Olympia for Washington state, L.A. for California, and NYC for New York.

[al baby]

they are scraping them for the metal it happened out in l.a. some years back

[proxy_user]

You remind me of the famous video tape the police got of a bum stealing a video camera....that's right, as it was taping him!

[finnman69]

Apparently they cant catch any kind of criminals in Baltimore

[Riley]

Some 130 have vanished from Baltimore's streets in the last several weeks, authorities say, presumably sold for scrap metal. But so far the case of the pilfered poles has stumped the police [...]

I will resist the temptation to make light of this problem.

[There You Go Again]

"New Africa, Maryland"..........you can name something "New England" or "New Africa", but the behavior doesn't really change much from the original to the "new"....

[fat city]

Crackhead looters ripped the copper plumbing out of inhabited apartment basement mechanical roooms in Cleveland a couple of years ago. Also. looters stole the sidewalks from inner city. Makes you want to say "get a job- its less work".

[ZOOKER]

You can't melt down an aluminum pole in a backyard BBQ, you know.

How many places in town can you fence a hot pole?

[gitmo]

Maybe the city forgot to pay its light bill.

[wolfpat]

"Is that a light pole in your pants, or are ya' just glad to see me?"

[Graybeard58]

I will resist the temptation to make light of this problem.,p> We are poles apart on this issue.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Yep. When William Donald Schaefer ran Baltimore they made one heck of a lot of forward progress.

Kurt Schmoke took over and the City went to Hell in a handcart.

O'Malley the current mayor is a shanty Irish hack.

"Bawlemer" won't get any better until a mayor who cares about the City takes over.

[southernnorthcarolina]

If the light poles keep vanishing, Baltimore's #1 commercial actvity may take a hit...

[DBrow]

It was guard rails around here, a few years back.

Going waay back, once someone stole the brass plaques from statues. Brass has better scrap value than aluminum, but guard rails are massy.

Some scrap dealer has turned Fence near Baltimore. Whoever is receiving the stuff knows what's up, it's just like handling hot TVs or car stereos.

[henderson field]

The Chinese want aluminum and are bidding prices up to get it. All the salvage yards are selling their light metal to China.

[Cobra64]

Was Louisiana scraped off the map?

[Cobra64]

Apparently they cant catch any kind of criminals in Baltimore

What is a "cant"?

Is that a new technique for catching criminals?

[Cobra64]

Sell the aluminum to a scrap dealer.

When I was in the steel distribution industry, we sold thousands of tons of steel scrap to scrap dealers who, in turn, sold and shipped it back to the steel mills.

[Emmett McCarthy]

Baltimore, as well as all of urban Maryland, sucks. MNy high school brags about how O'Malley is a graduate and I suppose they wonder why I don't send a frakin' donation.

[RTINSC]

"It will cost about $156,000 to replace each pole."

Imagine paying $156,000 for a 250 pound aluminum pole with a lighting fixture. Hard earned taxpayer money is lining someone's pocket in Baltimore.