Why are so many thieves stealing copper from houses? Where is copper found so I can replace it in my house?
Question:In my area, some idiot just died on a telephone pole trying to steal copper wires. He touched the other wires and fried himself. Churches, homes, and businesses are reporting break-ins and the thieves are stealing copper. Why can't the cops target the places that are giving cash for copper? What material can I replace the copper with in my house so thieves are "foiled" if they want copper? This is crazy. It is probably all for drugs, too. No wonder they call it dope.
Answers:
That is a tough one. The only way to stop this is to be there all the time. There are some things you can do on new construction, but you cannot get rid of all the copper. For plumbing, use pex tubing instead of copper pipes, provided it is approved in your area. This is a newer product and not acceptable in all cities. You really cannot do anything with your condensing unit. Hopefully people will realize it takes too much time to get the coil out to go after it. For wiring, you are kind of stuck. You can always use aluminum, but I doubt people would pass on that. I live in MN and Xcel energy had a large project where they were stringing up new power lines. They use aluminum wire because it is cheaper, but it has to be larger to handle the load. Some idiots decided they wanted the whole spool, which is quite large if you have ever seen one. It even had, property of Xcel Energy on it. They loaded the spool and took it to the scrap yard as is. They didn't get too far, the cops had them in cuffs before they ever left the lot.
that's common in a lot of areas. Most times theyonly hit houses under construction. If you have a heat pump, protect your outside condenser, the coils are copper. I don't think you could replace all the copper in your house to avoid being ripped off. You're talking water pipes, electric wire, A/C unit, etc.
Maybe the Darwin award winner that fried himself will show the others that maybe this isn't such a good idea.
The police in your area are probably already staking out the local scrap yards, if no cooperation, they'll work undercover. BUT, as long as copper prices are high, it's a quick and most times, easy pay off.
Your house probably contains a large amount of copper piping and copper wiring. Both are difficult to 'steal'. It's unlikely a thief would break in to steal the copper from your home.
Typically copper is stolen from empty or abandoned buildings/dwellings for sale as scrap metal. The price of copper has sky rocketed in the last couple of years. Any business that uses it as a raw material would also be a target.
If it is exposed try using white spray paint and make it look like PVC.
copper is selling at high prices right now 2 good rolls will bring at least 200 dollars and while redoing the pipes if you dont have gas try pvc pipes the copper can cause lots of health problems in the long run nothing with gas can have pvc
This is so common everywhere and it has been for a few years now. I just recycled all of my scap copper and got 500 bucks for about 150pounds. Its about at an all time high right now. I can generally tell how much my wire is going to cost by how much gas is that day, they kinda go up and down in price together. Being an Electrical Contractor, I've been dealing with this for a long while. When I do work in one particular area, which just happens to be a mile from a scrap yard and the meth use is high, I'm very prone to having my copper stolen from the house or electrical service. It is a complete pain in the A*S but the police make every copper recycling transaction noted and you have to fill out a sheet with your name, address, driver's license number and some other stuff..so they are trying to help in my city.hope this brought some clarity to the situation. Another thing: A roll of 14/2 with ground romex goes for around 40-50 bucks nowadays.....5 years ago I was buying it for 9 dollars a roll. That's why! Thanks
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