Might have been the same guy, this happen in NW Baltimore, the city was responding to a "pot hole" complaint and discovered parts of the bridge had been cut away. The bridge was fixable as I recalled.
In Harford county (about 20 miles from the city) someone was stealing LIVE power wires not one but at least three different times 
.
foxtrapper wrote: The bridge theft was in PA, not Baltimore. It was a funny story though. None the less, as scrap prices rise and fall, metal theft rises and falls.
What would happen if a crowbar hit a live wire? Now, I'm not suggesting anything...
Mitchell wrote: What would happen if a crowbar hit a live wire? Now, I'm not suggesting anything...
Q: What happens if they hit live wire:
A: Darwin wins again.
It must be terrifying nowadays to be the guy driving a freight train. All it takes is a crackhead with an oxy torch to eff up your whole day.
N Sperlo wrote: In reply to Donebrokeit: The police are always catching guys stealing copper, and sometimes from working equipment. Sometimes they show up at exactly the right time and all thats left is charred remains.
FTFY
914Driver wrote: Last year thieves broke in to handicapped woman's basement and stole the copper pipe that ran her baseboard heat..... WHILE SHE WAS LIVING THERE !!! Ought to be a legal way to get them to their special place in Hell today!.
FTFY
mad_machine wrote:oldtin wrote: not just in the USANotice the chaulk outline and suspecious red stain?
Yeah--hilarious. 
Metal theft has been a huge problem in New Orleans since Katrina. A friend of mine has lost all of the wiring and copper pipes from his house that he was renovating after it flooded. He gave up after the second theft and moved to the country. An electrician was telling me about a commercial building that the thieves hooked a truck to the electrical service and pulled wiring from the building, that did $100k worth of damage. A few geniuses have been electrocuted here while stealing copper. Now the scrap yards require photo id to sell metal. Right after Katrina, some dumbass was driving around my neighborhood collecting downed power lines and loading them into his van. He got caught and was prosecuted pretty severely.
N Sperlo wrote:cwh wrote: Trinidad has a real problem with it too, including ATTEMPTED theft of hot power lines. That gets smelly.Yea, I'd love to hotlink, but I don't want to ACTUALLY make anyone hurl. Thats not nice.
Don't, as the victim of copper theft (a grounding grid at work) that resulted huge electrical failure, I had a guy I know send me some pics of what happens. You DON'T want to look at that kind of stuff.
I have never seen somebody electrocuted.. but I have smelled it. A few years ago we had an electrician working on the 400amp (one of three) service at the theatre. He made the wrong connection and got more than an amp or two.
Surprisingly, he lived.. but the satin IBEW jacket he was wearing melted and shrunk to bond itself to his skin.
In reply to spriteracer:
Yeah, the school I was working for in NOLA had a pretty significant copper theft on its HVAC system over Katrina. Dem floods were sneaky.
Here's my take on it. If these guys are willing to climb up on a roof to strip siding, shimmy up a pole to bring down transformers(!!!!) and miles of telephone cable, and so on to make a buck they are NOT afraid of a little hard work. Go get a #$*#& JOB!!!
We have two or three guys a year get fried around here. Usually its inside a substation. One had been there for months.
Crackheads should see the insides of a telephone company switch office. Copper busses and huge lead plates galore.
mad_machine wrote: Surprisingly, he lived.. but the satin IBEW jacket he was wearing melted and shrunk to bond itself to his skin.
non-union .... no problem 
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:mad_machine wrote: He had gone away for a week for work. The theives came in and stripped all the metal out of the house in the course of a night...Note to self... when leaving for vacation, leave bottle of rat poison labeled "Free Crack Cocaine" in middle of basement.
more likely meth... so lightly crush up a bit of glass (you watch braking bad too right? lol)
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