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View Full Version : What a revolting story

Platapus
10-24-10, 08:09 AM
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/24/california.copper.theft/index.html?hpt=T2

Man electrocuted in botched copper wire theft, police say

One man was electrocuted and his female partner was severely burned after the couple attempted to steal copper wire from a vacant property in Southern California, police said.

"I believe they thought the power was off," said Lt. Keith Hupp of the South Gate Police Department.


Am I a terrible person if I immediately thought of a pun about a "hot" wire?


What is truly tragic is that this couple's kids may have seen it. That would stynk. :nope:
the_tyrant
10-24-10, 08:27 AM
I don't know weather to laugh or to cry
tater
10-24-10, 08:50 AM
Myself, I was laughing.

I have no sympathy for thieves.
papa_smurf
10-24-10, 01:50 PM
I have no sympathy for thieves.

Ditto, serves them right. We got this happening to over here, but they steal from anything from homes, to sub-stations, and even take copper wiring from railway points causing massive disruption.
Penguin
10-24-10, 02:27 PM
Ditto, serves them right. We got this happening to over here, but they steal from anything from homes, to sub-stations, and even take copper wiring from railway points causing massive disruption.

Same here, but it has chilled down a little since the prices for metal went down.
Causing delays because some arses stole the wires from the railway can be annoying, but here they stole a playground slide this year. C'mon, how cruel can you be? Heartless bastards!
GoldenRivet
10-24-10, 02:29 PM
Myself, I was laughing.

I have no sympathy for thieves.

Ditto.

Morons.

Its their own tuff chit
Jimbuna
10-24-10, 02:41 PM
"I believe they thought the power was off," said Lt. Keith Hupp of the South Gate Police Department.


I do believe they did :yep:
tater
10-24-10, 02:44 PM
I do believe they did :yep:

Bzzzzzzzzzzt!

(wrong answer)


:D
Jimbuna
10-24-10, 03:05 PM
Bzzzzzzzzzzt!

(wrong answer)


:D

http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/electricf.gif
krashkart
10-24-10, 07:41 PM
I hope the copper is okay. :hmmm:
bookworm_020
10-24-10, 10:19 PM
Ditto, serves them right. We got this happening to over here, but they steal from anything from homes, to sub-stations, and even take copper wiring from railway points causing massive disruption.


Quite a few of the delays here in Sydney on the rail network are due to these thefts. Power companies, Telstra (Australia's telecom), railways and electricians have reported increases in copper thefts, in particular when copper prices spike.

Telstra has had phone exchanges ripped apart by people taking the copper. It might be only worth $75,000 but they can do over $1,500,000 worth of damage....:stare::stare::stare::stare:
nikimcbee
10-24-10, 11:01 PM
I'll bet a diet dr pepper they were methheads.

Fitting end:woot:
nikimcbee
10-24-10, 11:01 PM
I hope the copper is okay. :hmmm:

:har::woot:
TLAM Strike
10-24-10, 11:19 PM
Am I a terrible person if I immediately thought of a pun about a "hot" wire?

You are worse than you realize... you didn't see the "ReVOLTing story" pun... :03:

:O:
HunterICX
10-25-10, 06:18 AM
Myself, I was laughing.

I have no sympathy for thieves.

+1

good riddance

HunterICX
SteamWake
10-25-10, 10:47 AM
I am currently designing the remodel of some "affordible apartments". There two story buildings with about 50 units in each building.

We informed the owner (the city) that new feeders would have to be pulled to new panels in each unit.

We were told not to worry about that as all of the copper had been pulled out long ago :o and not by the city.

The main feeders were still there (1,000 amps worth) only because they were aluminum.

The storys I could tell about this little project could make your head spin but I'm not really at liberty to divulge.
bookworm_020
10-26-10, 02:07 AM
Need to up the voltage..... that will stop them!:03:
SteamWake
10-26-10, 10:38 AM
Need to up the voltage..... that will stop them!:03:

Well they obviously knew enough to pull the meters before pulling the conductors so 'upping the voltage' wouldent accomplish much.

But I have heard storys about some of these bozos getting into a transmission yard and supprise supprise thats 12,470 volts *POOF*
Sailor Steve
10-26-10, 11:07 AM
But I have heard storys about some of these bozos getting into a transmission yard and supprise supprise thats 12,470 volts *POOF*
I once received a shock in excess of 30,000 volts and survived with minor shock and no injury at all. I hooked up a timing light to my car incorrectly. Lots of voltage, current nil. My arm snapped back of it's own accord, hard enough to throw the light about twenty feet.

My arm was sore for a couple of minutes. Lucky me. :D
SteamWake
10-26-10, 11:13 AM
I once received a shock in excess of 30,000 volts and survived with minor shock and no injury at all. I hooked up a timing light to my car incorrectly. Lots of voltage, current nil. My arm snapped back of it's own accord, hard enough to throw the light about twenty feet.

My arm was sore for a couple of minutes. Lucky me. :D

Current nil.... thats what saved your life my friend. That and it was DC.

If there had been any available current to speak of you would be a lump of coal right now.

Here is what you can get with a little potential behind it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMbN9nb3qyk

Keep in mind that is more or less perfectly normal :o
Sailor Steve
10-26-10, 11:34 AM
Yep, I've seen that one before. On the other hand I've read that out of four 9-volt batteries a stun gun can generate 750,000 volts. No amperage to speak of, so the victim is merely stunned.

We use electricity every day and never think about this stuff. Likewise natural gas. In one of his books John Stossel related that he was told by someone in that field "What if I proposed a new form of energy? One that was a deadly undetectable poison, and highly explosive as well? Now, what If I told you I want to pump this stuff directly into your home? The next time you turn on your stove, or take a hot shower, think about that."
SteamWake
10-26-10, 11:41 AM
It's sad to admit but I think about electricity nearly 24/7.

Its what I do for a living and in my liesure time I restore old ham radios.

Some of those radios can bite you pretty hard if you arent careful. Fun is brushing against B+ (300 volts DC) or worse.

But 'power' is simply expressed as P=E*I where power is expressed in 'watts or Voltampers' E=Voltage and I=Current.

As you can see if there is a miniscule amount of current there is not really much power.
DarkFish
10-26-10, 12:03 PM
But 'power' is simply expressed as P=E*I where power is expressed in 'watts or Voltampers' E=Voltage and I=Current.E? Never seen the letter E, at least not when meaning voltage. I know that formula as P=VI. And most of our books are American so that can't be the problem:hmmm:
SteamWake
10-26-10, 12:11 PM
Ohm's Law

I = E / R

Its been E as long as I can remeber. E is for electromotive force.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=ohms+law&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=OAvHTPTlH4a8lQftwaSBAg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=2&ved=0CCsQsAQwAQ&biw=1259&bih=850

But I see evidently its been changed to V to make it 'easy' I guess since no one really understands EMF anymore.
Blood_splat
10-26-10, 12:33 PM
PIE
DarkFish
10-26-10, 01:09 PM
Ohm's Law

I = E / R

Its been E as long as I can remeber. E is for electromotive force.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=ohms+law&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=OAvHTPTlH4a8lQftwaSBAg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=2&ved=0CCsQsAQwAQ&biw=1259&bih=850

But I see evidently its been changed to V to make it 'easy' I guess since no one really understands EMF anymore.yep I know Ohms law as V=IR.
Wikipedia has it with V as well, and V is the SI-symbol for Voltage.

It's been V for as long as *I* can remember, but that's just little over 1 year at university and 3 or 4 years at high school.
tater
10-26-10, 01:15 PM
It was V=IR as an astrophysics major back in the 80s, too, least for circuits.

For fields, we'd use E, though.
Penguin
10-26-10, 03:37 PM
To complete the confusion: In Germany we use an U instead of a V, maybe to avoid confusion with voltage.
So my bid would be U=I*R
Platapus
10-26-10, 05:23 PM
I once made an 8 inch screwdriver into a 2 inch screwdriver in about a millisecond because I made the fundamental mistake you can make with electricity.

I asked someone to kill the circuit. :damn::damn::damn::damn::damn:

Very bad mistake and I am lucky to be alive. :yep:
DarkFish
10-26-10, 05:26 PM
To complete the confusion: In Germany we use an U instead of a V, maybe to avoid confusion with voltage.
So my bid would be U=I*RIn high school we did so as well. But on the uni we only use V.
Penguin
10-27-10, 07:18 AM
In high school we did so as well. But on the uni we only use V.

hmm, I checked out my documents from my physics class at my uni from 2006 and indeed, we use U. The prof who wrote the stuff, teaches also in some other universities, so I assume U is the norm here. V is only used for volume - in mechanics.
Tater is right about E for electric fields btw.