Apparently stealing the phone cables for the scrap copper might work pretty well. This article speaks of Alabama leading the nation in people stealing copper wire off poles.
A commenter notes that with no market for scrap fiber, it might be another justification for AT&T to finally bite the bullet and invest in fiber to the home. I occasionally like to plug the keywords “electrocution” and “copper” into Google News to see if copper thieves have gotten any smarter about also trying to steal live electrical wire. The answer has continually been no.
That’s pretty funny. I had a co-worker from the former Soviet Union, who noted after the collapse of the Soviet government, it wasn’t uncommon for whole areas to wake up to no phone or electricity, because someone had come in the middle of the night and stolen all the copper wire to the neighborhood. Glad to see Obama is bringing us all the same joys of societal decay.
Markie Marxist sez: “All your copper are belong to us! Too bad it gets replaced with fiber. Our Marxist/warrior/hero/criminals are supposed to be bringing down capitalist America, not encouraging its improvement. Maybe we can mandate that copper has to be replaced with copper. We can mandate anything, as long as we disregard the Constitution, and we’ve certainly had a lot practice at doing that, haven’t we? Then our criminals can steal it again! We like to help them out like that – government and the private sector, working together, hand in hand! To rip off America! Ha! Ha!”
The thieves still pull the cable, since apparently they can’t tell the difference between copper and fiber on the pole…
Cell phones took-off in India absent the need for strung copper, and the less socio-economically advantaged could finally get a text- through — while the lazy and despicable Rich People’s Plaything Govt. Monopoly Phone Company went in the tank replacing stolen miles of wire…
Metal thieves has also taken to stealing the plaques from graves. It doesn’t get you much, but apparently enough for that next hit of meth. Metal dealers apparently don’t all exercise sound judgement in who they buy from or what they buy.
Which is leading to calls for scrap metal dealers to card sellers and only pay in check :(
Can we end the war on freedom drugs yet?
There have been several incidents of vacation homes in the Poconos being proken into to steal the copper wiring and water pipes.
http://articles.mcall.com/2011-08-09/news/mc-poconos-copper-theft-burglaries-20110809_1_tubing-copper-poconos-homes