Copper Thieves Leave I-95 In Palm Beach Co. In The Dark

[Feuer Frei!]

The next time you drive on I-95 and notice a street light is out you may have just witnessed the scene of a crime. It’s a crime that is making driving more dangerous. Thieves are breaking into the bases of light poles along I-95 in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties, trying to get at the valuable copper inside.
“They’re definitely doing it to sell the wire and make a profit and it’s unfortunate because it is causing a safety issue on the highways,” said Meredith Cruz with the Florida Department of Transportation.


In the last 4 to 6 months thieves have stolen copper wire from 100 lights in Palm Beach County, leaving drivers in the dark for 33 miles.
In all they took more than 175 thousand feet of copper wiring.
Miami-Dade has also been targeted. In the last year alone, 30 lights on the stretch of I-95 between NW30th and 79th streets have been vandalized for copper. So who pays the hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair the streetlights? You, the taxpayer.


SOURCE

[papa_smurf]

Its as bad over here in the UK with copper thieves, who steal from anything containing copper: copper pipes used in home heating, signal lines for railways, and most dangerous off all cables taken from electrical substations.

[Stealhead]

In most cases in the US the thieves are drug addicts they target A/C air condensers in particular I think that the scarp yards must be partly to blame for this they surely must know that some of the scrap they are buying is stolen.

[em2nought]

Probably too busy out busting hookers to notice street lights disappearing.

[yubba]

no that's, getting service from hookers to notice.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by papa_smurf

Its as bad over here in the UK with copper thieves, who steal from anything containing copper: copper pipes used in home heating, signal lines for railways, and most dangerous off all cables taken from electrical substations.

First I experience it was in Iraq, fair enough, but about four months after I got back it was headline news over here! In march this year a 16-year-old boy received 11kV whilst trying to steal some, should happen to more of the theiving <insert nasty word of choice here>.

Electric burns FTW

[ajrimmer42]

Originally Posted by papa_smurf

Its as bad over here in the UK with copper thieves, who steal from anything containing copper: copper pipes used in home heating, signal lines for railways, and most dangerous off all cables taken from electrical substations.

haha, yup we get no end of delays due to copper wire thefts on railways. Idiots. Then again it's always kinda funny when you walk down a path next to a railway, or a canal towpath and there's stripped wire insulation everywhere You just gotta hope that the little scrotes get fried one day whilst doing it