Report: Scrap Metal Thieves Cause Fatal Crashes, Millions in Infrastructure Damage for Cities Across U.S.

Breitbart News ^ | 11 Jul 2024 | Olivia Rondeau

[T Ruth]

Urban metal theft has risen to new levels following the pandemic, with thousands of feet of wiring from streetlights, hundreds of fire hydrants, and even mausoleum nameplates being stolen to flip for small amounts of money all over the country.

***

In St. Paul, Minnesota, a man was “recently hit by a car and killed while crossing a street near his home where streetlights had gone out,” the report stated.

Laurellee Wirtz was widowed on Christmas Eve 2023 when her husband and dog were struck by a truck on the “pitch black” road that she and her neighbors had reported to the city of St. Paul “for months,” KSTP reported.

The tragedy occurred in front of the couple’s home on Maryland Avenue West when 64-year-old Steven Wirtz and their two-year-old German Shepherd, Gunther, were hit at around 8:15 p.m.

“I’ll never, ever ever get that scene out of my head,” the grieving wife told the local outlet in March. “When I went out there and saw him, all I could do was yell that they killed him. ‘They killed him. They killed him.’ That’s all I could say over and over again…I wanted to go up and touch him one more time, tell him I love him, but I couldn’t move. All I could do was yell.”

Gunther was also killed in the accident.

According to St. Paul Public Works Director Sean Kershaw, the streetlights were out ​​due to a “combination of copper wire theft and the timing” of new LED light installations.

Wirtz’s death highlighted “why we keep going back and installing the copper wire even when [theft] happens,” Kershaw said. “We can’t let up.”

Copper from one light pole is sold for only about $30, according to the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune.

***

[T Ruth]

When the Biden-Obama administration fosters an invasion of millions of young men who have no respect for the law, can't speak English, and have no job skills, what are they going to do?

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Open season should be declared on "scrap metal" thieves.

No daily or possession limit.

[Navy Patriot]

Scrap Metal Thieves Cause Fatal Crashes, Millions in Infrastructure Damage for Cities Across U.S.

Created and Protected by Prog Marxist Democrat Tyranny.

[Trailerpark Badass]

There is no desire on the part of our technocrat management elite to defend civilization. On the contrary, they enact and enforce policies that are actively destroying it.

I cannot fathom the thought process of those who believe there is a conventional political solution that will even slow down this trend.

[Ronaldus Magnus III]

Two thoughts

It would be great to set up a scrap metal sting opera building. We saw one for an industry where each person came into the lobby, was taken back into the offices, arrested, and taken away. Dozens of creeps arrested. The same concept could work for a while, with the metal/copper thieves.

Also, the amazing series The Wire highlights these copper thieves several times. If you have not watched all five seasons, be sure to find it.

[sergeantdave]

You can’t sell copper wire at a pawn shop or flea market. Park a cop car at the scrap yard and arrest the clods pulling bundles of copper wire from the bed of their pickup.

Idiocracy need not become reality.

[Mark]

From another source:

Copper Wire Thieves Plunge L.A. Neighborhood Into Darkness

Once the sun sets in the Pico-Union area, workers and residents approach the streets with trepidation. Here, and in other parts of Los Angeles, copper-wire thieves have stripped them of their sense of safety. “I had a guy pull a gun on me one night,” said Albert Robles, owner of Robles Carburetors, at Hoover and West 18th streets. Emboldened, he believes, by the cover of darkness, the man was breaking into a car and didn’t want any interference from Robles. At the Domino’s across the street, Luis Rojas has worked for three years delivering pizzas. Nowadays, he says, fellow pizza delivery drivers are often scared to leave their cars to go knocking on doors along the gloomy corridor of South Union Avenue between Washington and Venice boulevards. “I used to walk to work,” said Rojas, who lives a brisk 10-minute walk from his employment. Now, it’s frightening. “People can follow you.” This new layer of fear has become a fact of daily life in Pico-Union, said lifelong resident Aurora Corona. According to locals, entire blocks go dark at night in this L.A. neighborhood that lies west of downtown. One of L.A.’s most densely populated neighborhoods, it is home to about 40,000 people within 1.67 square miles

[traditional2]

“Is it them, again, Yogi”?

[31R1O]

Sadly it reminds me of how the Iraqis would depend on structures and vehicles like locusts if the were abandoned or damaged.

[nutmeg]

Bkmk

[RetiredTexasVet]

Bidenomics in action.

[Bernard]

According to St. Paul Public Works Director Sean Kershaw, the streetlights were out ​​due to a “combination of copper wire theft and the timing” of new LED light installations.

I'm going to make a wild guess that the timing is a euphemism for delay, caused by a decrease of money available for routine services because what is left in municipal budgets after paying for defined-benefit pensions and the pampering of illegals is not enough to provide first-world municipal services.

[ridesthemiles]

PUT UP SOLAR?????

[roving]

If you take a walk in the dark, bring a flashlight.