Recyclables

[Cali]

Times must be very hard for many, because for the past 3 weeks someone has been taking my recycle stuff. Last week I actually saw a woman going through my recycle things and putting it in her truck. I told her that if anyone should make money off the recycle stuff it should be me. I didn't see her in it today.

Just a few minutes ago, I saw a guy stop across the street and went through 3 recycle bins for stuff to put in his truck.

I thought it was illegal to steal recyclables.

[jerzey]

In vegas its huge
they rip copper out of light poles
break into job sites
and go into folcloused homes to rip out the copper there too

[Cali]

OMG, I didn't know it was that serious.
The woman that I yelled at last week, looked at me and kept taking stuff out. Of course, she didn't show up today.

In vegas its huge
they rip copper out of light poles
break into job sites
and go into folcloused homes to rip out the copper there too

[jerzey]

OMG, I didn't know it was that serious.
The woman that I yelled at last week, looked at me and kept taking stuff out. Of course, she didn't show up today.

as far as job sites...
MGM hotels will ban you from ALL of their Casinos Hotels and any property they own if they catch you stealing objects to recycle
ON top of pressing charges

one guys got caught with less the a pound of copper in his jacket ( @ the city center project)

cops came and got him, he was kicked out of his union and fined


Police here have sent up sting operations to catch the guys taking the copper out of st lights I guess its cost a few thousand in tax payer money to replace the copper

[AngelinaCat]

We have had trouble with theft from construction sites here in Florida, too. One rather notorious case involved three young men, age 18 and older, all drinking, went and stole the material, at night, had a minor wreck and fled the scene. One of the young men is the son of one of our better liked elected officials. I'm not sure what the status of his case in the court system is. I've been too busy worrying about our own legal stuff to follow someone else's.

[Cali]

I just read an article that NY has it as a law, with a pretty big fine.

In one of the counties here the fine is 100$ to 200$ for stealing recyclables.

[jerzey]

For those short 6 months i worked on job sites everyone would steel anything they could scape for cash it was pretty sad to watch

hear I am going into BK and these guys make 70k+ a year and they are the ones steeling
When i asked why, I was told beer money!
you risk your job for beer money...!

[DisneyGirl]

We've had it happen a couple times here. I have seen two different men on bicycles going through all the recycle cans on the street and putting stuff in their garbage bags to take. It seems to have stopped since we now stick all the plastic bottles and soda cans on the very bottom and all the cardboard on top.

[dragonnfly]

OK Here in Toledo we win......someone is stealing the old type of sandstone sidewalk from vacant houses!!!

[Flamingo]

The metal street grates and man hole covers are being stolen like crazy in our area and were being sold for about $17 each to the metal scrappers/dealers. The police had to crack down it got so bad that those bringing in any metal had to show ID and the scrappers/dealers had to hold the items for 10 days in case it turned out the items were stolen. Copper downspouts and copper piping in new housing construction are disappearing like crazy and those having beach houses in the shore area went down prior to Memorial Day weekend and found all the copper piping torn out of their outside showers. Aluminum is also high in price right now and if you recycle and have the state provided bins that are left at your house that you can fill, you can be sure they will be raided if you put them near your curb or at the top of your driveway. Nothing is safe in your backyard now and shed breakins are rampant along with items stolen from yards and unlocked cars left in your driveway.

[WhatMoney]

Around here ripping catalytic converters out of trucks is the new trick. The thieves are targeting Toyota trucks because the ground clearance makes it easy to get underneath, and the converters can be removed by just loosening some nuts. Only takes a few minutes. Hundreds of reports already this year, most from locked trucks parked in homeowners' driveways. If they have time, they may siphon your gas too.

The catalytic converters are sold to recycle dealers for $28 each for the Platinum recovery. Some truck owners are having the nuts on the converter welded on to discourage the thieves.

Another interesting target is high speed optical cable, including buried cable. Now the thieves can't get anything for the optical cable, mostly glass and plastic, but the connectors for the cables are made of brass, copper, nickel, and other semi-precious metals. So they chop off the connectors for a few bucks. Costs thousands to repair the cables, and hi speed internet is cut off for areas where this is done.

Remember when the desparate Iraqis ripped out anything of value from the houses and infrastructure after Bush bombed Baghdad? Well a few Trillion dollars later spent on Iraq and now we are seeing it in the US. And it's only going to get worse. Third world country status coming soon.

[Bandit]

I guess I dont view people going thru garbage as stealing, especially the ones who clean up the parks & beaches filling their plastic bags with cans to get a little cash. I mean, sure they did steal the shopping cart that holds their stuff but I am not sure what happens with that. Kind reminds me of the push cart wars, if anyone has ever read it.

Also reminds me of the paper drives we did as kids to earn cash. If I found bundles of newspaper on the curb where the garbage was, I would take them for the drive, then ask the people if they have any more they would like to get rid of. We did that all through the neighborhood. I think people would not be as opposed if these people would ask & say what they are doing in the garbage or recycle.

If someone puts their old appliance, couch, lawnmower or whatever on the curb to be trashed & someone picks it up, I don't see it as stealing. It would cost me & be a bigger hassle to get rid of it so if someone can use it or sell it then that does not bother me. I would be more worried about people digging thru my own garbage over the recycle container, getting sick eating rotten food or looking for personal info & it would not set well with me because they would also probably leave a mess & taking personal info I view as stealing, though most of mine is burned.

I do view it as stealing when they take scrap metal & wire from on the job or enter big dumpsters on private property, rummage through the charity bins, or steal the metal, landscaping & appliances from model homes or taking rims & parts from your car. Running through the neighborhood taking peoples gates & sewer covers is big time stealing & they will get caught.

This reminds me of the old sewing machines where people would break into your home for certain parts because they were worth thousands.

Interesting discussion.

[Bandit]

Third world country status coming soon.

I dont pass that off as an impossibility & is not that far out of reach. I think the change is happening so deceitfully people are not getting it or there is no real way to stop it due to globalization & the...you know... It is like the entire infrastructure is fracturing, almost like on purpose.

[justplaintired]

We recycle at the curb here and get nothing for it, so if someone wanted to come and get my recycles to make a little cash I would not stop them, they must be even worse off then we are.

Although in Indianapolis not too awful far from me people were stealing peoples central air units to get the copper out. My DH nephew is actually in the scraping business right now, taking people's old appliances, cars whatever has metal in and selling the metal for cash. All legally just for the record. I recently read an article that said any metal of any type will only increase in value.

[Cali]

It is illegal in many areas to do that.

People tend to come to my city because they think everyone has money and they can get a lot of good stuff out of the trash.

We've had people steal wave runners out of the backyards of houses.

We recycle at the curb here and get nothing for it, so if someone wanted to come and get my recycles to make a little cash I would not stop them, they must be even worse off then we are.

Although in Indianapolis not too awful far from me people were stealing peoples central air units to get the copper out. My DH nephew is actually in the scraping business right now, taking people's old appliances, cars whatever has metal in and selling the metal for cash. All legally just for the record. I recently read an article that said any metal of any type will only increase in value.