Posted on 08/01/2013 11:00:25 AM PDT by bkopto
Copper is such a hot commodity that thieves are going after the metal anywhere they can find it: an electrical power station in Wichita, Kan., or half a dozen middle-class homes in Morris Township, N.J. Even on a Utah highway construction site, crooks managed to abscond with six miles of copper wire.
Those are just a handful of recent targets across the U.S. in the $1 billion business of copper theft.
SNIP
The five leading states for the thefts are Ohio, Texas, Georgia, California and Illinois, the NICB said.
SNIP
Copper wire was stolen from a substation of Kansas-based Westar Energy in April, knocking out power in south Wichita and causing more than a $150,000 in damage. Westar officials said there have been more than 50 copper thefts at area substations this year, versus four in 2012.
"It's been like an epidemic this spring, and we couldn't keep up with the thefts," said Pat VanSyoc, director of substation maintenance for Westar.
"The damage can be quite extensive," he said. "It costs anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 for us to repair the substations, plus there's the loss of energy for our customers."
VanSyoc said thieves have no idea of the danger for themselves and the company's repair crewswhen they try to steal copper from power outlets.
"They can easily get electrocuted trying to steal copper wiring, and if we have to dig deep to find what they've stolen, it puts our repair people in danger as well," he said.
Police in some states, including West Virginia and Kansas, have reported deaths from suspected copper heists gone wrong, finding electrocuted victims carrying flashlights and bolt cutters next to power lines.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Part of the problem is that some scrap yards pay cash for the copper.
The solution is to require direct deposit into a bank account or deposit on a debit or credit card. That way they have to obtain a bank account which generally requires a couple forms of ID and a social security number. It also takes time.
Now the transaction is recorded not only at the scrap yard, but through the banking system as well.
Interestingly enough, ‘getting sacked’ is also a brit term for ‘getting fired’. Of course the more common pommie term is “Discharged”, but far more polite than ‘getting the boot’ as in ‘booted out’ would be.
A couple of years ago, while visiting wifey's kin in little Melrose, we were staying at the town's only motel.
A van fulla Mexican men pulled up, and the driver rented one room....I asked Patel if this was suspicious to him, and he just said, "It happens all the time" - this was around 9am, and by 5pm they were out and gone.
Our founding fathers in the Consitution gave Congress the responsibilty to regulate trade with foreign countries. Why? Because they understood that needed to be regulated and was an important role of government.
We have followed and are still following government trade policies that are allowing American industries to be decimated. Our founding fathers would role over in their graves if they could see what we are doing.
I'm on the right thread. Freedom is not protected by outsourcing all our industry to Communist China. To protect individual liberty, the free state must be protected. And that starts with protecting it's economy.
For many years Thomas Jefferson believed that America should remain an agricultural economy and trade for manufactured goods. And then in his words "the unthinkable happened", Europe cut us off from manufactured goods. And Jefferson came to the conclusion that a strong manufacturing base was necessary to protect a free state. +
Yep, taxes are like $150,000 probably...
but, if I buy it for $1, take the copper, and then abandon it like the last guy...
You might check with tire shops and auto repair facilities to see what they do with used wheel weights.
Years ago a guy asked an electrical contractor friend of mine how much he’d charged to put up an electric fence to hold in his hound dogs. He thought the price was too high and said he’d do it himself. About two weeks later he found everyone of his dogs dead. He had hooked 120 volts to his fence.
How much more should I pay in taxes in order to stop this scourge of copper theft, in your opinion?
That will work if you don't have any assets. And if they will let you buy it without bringing it current on taxes. But if you have assets, they will go after you. The guy who abandoned it, was probably unemployed and used his last dime to move out.
Dunno if its true, but...
Heard a story about the old Soviet days. A tavern keeper “bought” a tank from its crew for vodka and pickled eggs. He cut it up a bit a time and sold it for scrap. He got caught because the buyer was wondering where he was getting such high-quality scrap.
It’s all about supporting unions, dear sir. Higher tariffs = stronger unions.
They also believed in free enterprise, and no unions.
So long as unionized labor exists, tariffs feed them at the expense of American enterprise.
This thread is not about unions, silly. It’s about abortion. If we only raised your taxes, there would be fewer abortions.
All the employees had to exit the plant through a guard shack on their way to the parking lot.
One hellishly hot summer day, a guy passed out in the guard shack, and when they unbuttoned his shirt it was revealed that he had a substantial amount of copper wire wrapped around his torso.
His reponse upon awakening: "Those guys are always playing tricks on me."
Strangely, the assertion was met with great skepticism.
$0 net effect on your taxes.
We could start by restoring import tariffs to 15%, their historical norms from the current 1%. Since imports are now equal to 16% of U.S. GNP. That would come out to a 14% tariff increase on 16% of the goods purchased or about 2.2%.
But foreign manufactures may choose to absorb some of that and take less profit margin. Because if they could have raised prices without losing market share, they already would have. You probably would not actually see a 2.2% increase in prices.
US GNP is running about $14 Trillion. So that would raise government revenues from tariffs by 2.2% * 14 Trillion = $308 billion. If you want it to be government revenue neutral and if you assume all tariffs get baked into the price, you could lower income taxes by $308 Billion. You would then have $0 net tax effect.
As American products come back, the tariff revenue would begin to drop. But as people went back to work, the growth in income taxes would dwarf the drop in tariffs and safety net payments would fall. That would help our gov't debt.
Those products from China are as cheap as they look, when you consider the hidden costs, like maintaining unemployed Americans on food stamps,unemployment, medicaid, etc.
Probably the $100K in back taxes you have to pay first to get posession and a clear title?
Well then let's offshore all American jobs and really teach those unions!!!!
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. The Unions were right that imports could destroy American jobs. It was the wrong argument to use when we were at full employment. It's not the wrong argument now that we are at 25% unemployment.
Well then let's offshore all American jobs and really teach those unions!!!!
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. The Unions were right that imports could destroy American jobs. It was the wrong argument to use when we were at full employment. It's not the wrong argument now that we are at 25% unemployment.
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