Posted on 01/24/2008 8:13:32 PM PST by Diver Dave
SAN JOSE -- South Bay authorities Wednesday revealed details of a year-long undercover operation targeting copper theft that yielded more than 150 arrests including an alleged Fremont bomb maker who prosecutors say is the first person in the country charged with making a cell phone detonated improvised explosive device.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktvu.com ...
I guess the paramilitary wing of Up With People is at it again.
A Fremont Bomb maker?
Kind of a casual way to put it.
I thought copper yielded an IUD?
A CPDIED.
ping
Dude, how much freakin' wire did you need? There had to be a friendly Radio Shack store nearby.
Copper theft is a major problem around these parts.
Two weeks ago, the thiefs stole the innards of an air conditioning unit off the roof of the local Red Cross building.
I took some scrap copper and brass into the local recycling center last summer. I was questioned where I got it. I told him I’m a retired plumber and I’ve picked it up over the years from different small jobs I’ve done. When he asked if I had any identification proving I was a plumber, I turned around and lifted my shirt and showed him the scar on my back from back surgery. ID accepted. :)
I did a Google on Indio earlier, didn’t find anything. I put it down to your age.
I’d be curious to know if the majority of the copper thieves were drug addicts.
Give me a break...I had the right state
Wow.
It's happening everywhere:
Daring Copper Theft Foiled In Baldwin County
Authorities say men used boat and ladder to strip valuable wire from Tensaw River train trestle
Thursday, January 24, 2008
By DAVID FERRARAStaff Reporter
The police report reads like a scene from "Mission: Impossible" that was left on the cutting room floor.
Three Mobile County men hopped in a small boat and pointed it up the Tensaw River, the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.
The trio arrived near the Crossroads community -- in a swampy area known as Tensaw Island -- sometime Tuesday morning. They were wearing dark clothing and at least one was in a wet suit and gloves, in case he needed to hide in the chilly waters.
They hoisted a ladder against the trestle under the train tracks along the bank of the river. One man reached the top of the ladder and shimmied up the trestle, according to Baldwin County Sheriff's Col. Charlie Jones.
While one man stood lookout, another used a wire cutter to clip copper from a post along the tracks, "dropping it to the third suspect on the ground who would roll it up and hide it out of sight until it could be retrieved," a release from the Sheriff's Office stated.
"It's extremely dangerous, but apparently they were willing to take the risk," Jones said.
Investigators aren't yet sure how long this continued before a CSX railroad worker called about the suspicious behavior, Jones said.
Soon after that, about 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, two deputies were in pursuit with the CSX employee, riding in a car specially equipped for the rails.
As they approached, the deputies spotted three men running from the area.
Within minutes, they found three men lying face down in the swamp, about 50 feet from the tracks.
The Sheriff's Office said that deputies later discovered $4,800 worth of copper wire --about 9,000 feet -- that the men had allegedly tried to steal.
As a safety precaution, the railroad traffic was shut down briefly four about 1½ hours Tuesday, Jones said. CSX officials did not return phone messages Wednesday.
The men charged with first-degree theft of property, first-degree criminal mischief and third-degree criminal trespass are Claude Thomas Tillman, 34, of Mobile; Leonard Wittner, 36, of Irvington; and James Lee Dowdle, 18, of Irvington.
According to online court records from Mobile County, Tillman and Wittner have both faced previous theft charges.
Jones said investigators were trying to determine whether the men might be linked to another copper theft along the railroad.
Fremont happens to have the largest Afghan community in the USA. Part of the town is known as “Little Kabul”. Just a coincidence though, I’m sure.
I worked for the phone company for twenty years. I was told not to mess with cash, copper or...I forget the third. Good advice, though. To think on it, I spent a good portion of my life making sure that copper was kept in such condition that it could conduct current.
Boy so much can change in 20yrs.
(grew up in the east bay, promptly left in my 20’s)
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