What??? You realize very smart people become criminals. The crime world is basically the same as the mainstream. And all of it intertwines anyway, street crime and mainstream unethical things.
The same drive someone puts into a PhD can be put into being criminal. Fact is successful criminals don't get caught. Some of them even become presidents, military personnel, cops, and politicians...
Start with crime, build money and get then ease into legal life. Shitty pop rappers for example. ...a sloppy example of people that don't do it well.
That’s true, but aren’t financial crimes or organized crimes are where the smarter people are? Stealing raw materials to sell at shady recyclers is low bar moron crime.
Commodities tend to hold value pretty well, especially in poorer areas/nations, and if the operation is decentralized, the risks for the organizers is near zero.
If something is able to be easily taken with a plausible disguise or with low risk (the ol' hard hat, safety vest and clipboard "security pass", or just an unguarded jobsite) there will be opportunists.
For someone with greater skills, that's low hanging fruit that's not worth the risk of getting caught on camera, but the more desperate you are, the more risk you're willing to accept.
Of course, taking cable in the first place is a dick move and will negatively impact the local area and utilities as a whole, so it's a slap in the face for the entire community tbh. Some people don't care though...
Thievery isn't the only crime. It's not even particularly lucrative. It's mostly done by desperate people who don't know better or independently wealthy thrill seekers who don't care about the take.
meanwhile here they left a massive spool of obvious copper laying on the ground with nothing protecting it whatsoever, and it remained completely untouched for like a week
Even when it's fully installed, people will try to steal the copper cables. In the power industry it's a real problem with people removing the earthing, not always noticeable right away, but then it's not safe to work on anymore.
They lay it in rural areas because it's cheaper to maintain and requires less permiting compared to city installation where there are more buried utilities.
I dunno who is even still stealing copper considering that a lot of yards are asking for proof of ownership before they accept it. Copper-nabbers are opportunistic, and won't take the time to forge an original invoice.
Copper spools have the sheathing stripped off, wire cut to reasonable lengths, then brought to multiple recyclers in stages.
To be sure, the odd idiot will show up with a unadulterated spool and try to get paid, but most that go to the effort of abducting these things off the side of the road aren't entirely stupid.
Then again, a less scrupulous yard might still buy the spool as it comes and strip it themselves.
No, check ebay if you don't believe me. It's not exactly plentiful, but there are enough contractors with several hundred/thousand feet left over from big jobs who are selling it for wholesale or less. It's not like you can recycle it, and splicing is unreliable without tools that cost as much as a car, so if you've got a partial spool you need to get rid of you'll probably have to sell it at a loss.
Putting my geoguessr to the test-
For sure US, Pine trees, wood fences, trailers, political sign- David Hogan? cant make it out, not St Augustine grass-maybe paspalum?, Barn/stable implies horses or cows maybe.
Im guessing north-central Florida/south Georgia. Sticking the pin somewhere close to Taylor Florida or right on the border of GA.
Sorry, im not trying to dox just having some fun. :P
I feel like you could real easily just steel that roll and of fiber optic cable and sell it? Like that much of the stuff must be rather valuable. Also they labelled it for you so that you know what it is
Fiber optic cable is just glass or nylon, sealed with a thermoplastic. It really is one of the cheapest kinds of cables to make, maybe ever. It's really not worth anything when anyone who needs to run fiber can just buy a brand new spool for the same price as a spool from four guys in a shitty pickup truck who can't describe why they even had it to begin with.
Who would you sell it to? The same telecom company? The same company that installs it? Might as well steal the tires off the installation team truck and sell it back to them.
Sell it to who? Most business must keep records of the stuff they use in their books. A roll of optic fiber this large would cost a substantial amount of money, so using one "off the books" would require some creativity. And I'm not sure there's much use for individuals for that much.
Copper is interesting because there are business that buys it by weight for recycling purposes.
Looks like they're burying it. The buried stuff does have a small copper locate wire. Or maybe its aluminum? I don't know. Better check
How bad is your neighborhood that you have to label cable spools to prevent material theft???
Thieves don't care if it's a nice neighborhood. It happens on building sites everywhere. They don't mind driving a long way.
But how much copper they gotta steal to pay for driving out to it? I need to check the price of copper.
If they were good at math, they wouldn't be thieves.
What??? You realize very smart people become criminals. The crime world is basically the same as the mainstream. And all of it intertwines anyway, street crime and mainstream unethical things.
The same drive someone puts into a PhD can be put into being criminal. Fact is successful criminals don't get caught. Some of them even become presidents, military personnel, cops, and politicians...
Start with crime, build money and get then ease into legal life. Shitty pop rappers for example. ...a sloppy example of people that don't do it well.
That’s true, but aren’t financial crimes or organized crimes are where the smarter people are? Stealing raw materials to sell at shady recyclers is low bar moron crime.
Commodities tend to hold value pretty well, especially in poorer areas/nations, and if the operation is decentralized, the risks for the organizers is near zero.
If something is able to be easily taken with a plausible disguise or with low risk (the ol' hard hat, safety vest and clipboard "security pass", or just an unguarded jobsite) there will be opportunists.
For someone with greater skills, that's low hanging fruit that's not worth the risk of getting caught on camera, but the more desperate you are, the more risk you're willing to accept.
Of course, taking cable in the first place is a dick move and will negatively impact the local area and utilities as a whole, so it's a slap in the face for the entire community tbh. Some people don't care though...
Yeah, but the real money is in the price fixing and crony contracts from bribed city planners.
Thievery isn't the only crime. It's not even particularly lucrative. It's mostly done by desperate people who don't know better or independently wealthy thrill seekers who don't care about the take.
meanwhile here they left a massive spool of obvious copper laying on the ground with nothing protecting it whatsoever, and it remained completely untouched for like a week
Even when it's fully installed, people will try to steal the copper cables. In the power industry it's a real problem with people removing the earthing, not always noticeable right away, but then it's not safe to work on anymore.
File this under frequently found dead. Substations get hit like this and then the guy dies walking away
It's a really common thing in construction yards.
True. Construction sites helped me build lots of bike and skateboard ramps in the 80s.
Did you know they also used to leave keys in the heavy equipment?
Hah r-right
yup! now everything is operated by, well, me, because i have all the keys
You can buy a set of keys on Amazon that will run almost any piece of equipment found on a construction site for like $15.
https://www.amazon.com/Equipment-Construction-Caterpillar-AT195302-Takeuchi/dp/B0F7LG3FTV
But thats not as much fun
Don't even need to do that. No immobilizer, you can just LPL the situation or hotwire.
Here in Germany, they're literally stealing the overhead lines off of the train tracks.
At one of my prior jobs (Chicos FAS,Ft Myers, FL) a maintenance guy got fired when they caught him stealing cables for copper about 10 years ago.
The entire continent of africa
If it's real copper, they have to tell you. It's in the constitution.
Bull shit! They don’t lay fiber anywhere that rural and meth looking! It’s copper in disguise! Geet ‘um!
They specifically lay fiber in rural areas, cuz it’s federally subsidized
They lay it in rural areas because it's cheaper to maintain and requires less permiting compared to city installation where there are more buried utilities.
Sure this will prevent the meth heads from stealing it, but it will attract a much larger and more dangerous predator - the North American Excavator.
Actually so lame that they have to do this. Cant have shit in Detroit (or wherever this is)
…have you ever been to Detroit? Because that is not what Detroit looks like lol
Ill just leave that here for you. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cant-have-shit-in-detroit
If not copper, why copper shaped?
If you're a copper, you have to tell me.
::: spoiler 💸 Something something Ea Nasir. :::
God dammit, I don't have any original thoughts.
We all thought it. ¯\(^_^)/¯
Thank you, I am now reassured in my DuckDuckGo-fu after looking this up because I don't watch the Simpsons.
I dunno who is even still stealing copper considering that a lot of yards are asking for proof of ownership before they accept it. Copper-nabbers are opportunistic, and won't take the time to forge an original invoice.
That's exactly what a copper thief would say.
Get 'em, boys.
Copper spools have the sheathing stripped off, wire cut to reasonable lengths, then brought to multiple recyclers in stages.
To be sure, the odd idiot will show up with a unadulterated spool and try to get paid, but most that go to the effort of abducting these things off the side of the road aren't entirely stupid.
Then again, a less scrupulous yard might still buy the spool as it comes and strip it themselves.
Some people were about to buy a house then on the day of closing, they inspect the house one last time and found all the copper pipes missing lol
So they had to re-negotiate about the purchase price
I dunno, it's kind of hard to spell "Ea-nāṣir" correctly.
Bold of them to assume copper thieves can read.
Wouldnt fiber optic cable be worth more? 🤔
Yeah, but you wouldn't find a buyer
Time to start an Internet equipment company.
Yeah , but you won't find a buyer , the thing with copper and metals is you can easily sell them off in most cases.
No, check ebay if you don't believe me. It's not exactly plentiful, but there are enough contractors with several hundred/thousand feet left over from big jobs who are selling it for wholesale or less. It's not like you can recycle it, and splicing is unreliable without tools that cost as much as a car, so if you've got a partial spool you need to get rid of you'll probably have to sell it at a loss.
are you saying they wouldn't find a buyer?
No, it's a little more nuanced than that.
yeah but no buyer
either i know where that is or they're all like that
Putting my geoguessr to the test-
For sure US, Pine trees, wood fences, trailers, political sign- David Hogan? cant make it out, not St Augustine grass-maybe paspalum?, Barn/stable implies horses or cows maybe.
Im guessing north-central Florida/south Georgia. Sticking the pin somewhere close to Taylor Florida or right on the border of GA.
Sorry, im not trying to dox just having some fun. :P
People: The surveillance state will eliminate privacy!
Rando on the internet: If you wanted your house to be private you shouldn't have had grass.
So you're saying 4chan was a trend-setter for geoguessr? XD
That is just what someome with a lot of copper would say!
Been needing to finish the mancave, even BETTER!
I feel like you could real easily just steel that roll and of fiber optic cable and sell it? Like that much of the stuff must be rather valuable. Also they labelled it for you so that you know what it is
Fiber optic cable is just glass or nylon, sealed with a thermoplastic. It really is one of the cheapest kinds of cables to make, maybe ever. It's really not worth anything when anyone who needs to run fiber can just buy a brand new spool for the same price as a spool from four guys in a shitty pickup truck who can't describe why they even had it to begin with.
Who would you sell it to? The same telecom company? The same company that installs it? Might as well steal the tires off the installation team truck and sell it back to them.
I think turning someone's tires to solid steel would be pretty funny
Curse you, autocorrect!
Sell it to who? Most business must keep records of the stuff they use in their books. A roll of optic fiber this large would cost a substantial amount of money, so using one "off the books" would require some creativity. And I'm not sure there's much use for individuals for that much.
Copper is interesting because there are business that buys it by weight for recycling purposes.
It's really that valuable, the bulk prices I've found on Alibaba are around $25-$30 per KILOMETER!
r/trashy
Um... What kind of fiber optic?
TOSLINK
i mean, you can do that if you want
wait fiber optic is like power lines??
In some localities fibre optic is strung on the power lines, yes.
In some it is buried.
All you're looking at is the outer protective sheath.
If enough people believe it's copper, it's good enough.
If the right people don't think it's just fiber, then it's no longer good enough.