It is happening here now. Down on their luck men are taking anything they can steal.
I read in the paper last week that several intersections in Vallejo had no signals working because the wires were stolen out of the conduits.
This is the perfect example of the the decline of a civilization. The poor start looting the abandoned sites of the former country. Next comes the makers trying to defend their property from the barbarians. Then comes local warlords who can protect what’s left. This has been repeated over thousands of years.