Copper theft is deadly

I can imagine his demise. Just got back from an Arc Fault safety training session.

Wes S

Hi Bob

Perhaps it was ELECTRICITY that went through.

About 13 thousand volts.

The part that got me was his girlfriend and other friends on camera wailing about what a honest, hard working guy he was. Why would someone so honest be climbing poles to steal copper?

The live news report said the line he reached out to cut was one of three 7200 volt lines, and that he was standing on a grounded conductor at the time.

No, being a dumb-azz is deadly.......... You gotta be a touch smarter than what you're trying to steal.

The real contridiction is that most thieves are too lazy to climb a pole. Good thing this one wasn't so's he could go on to his just Darwinian deserts.

He was applying for a new job...Conductor!

Looks like he was overqualified!

Tell you how bad it is - some dufus pulled 500 feet of fiber optic cable from an underground run tube. Cut it and found no copper so he cut and cut. All trash now.

My bet is a young kid was assigned to do it - in case he was caught - then once out - the seller - got angry.

Martin Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Takes a robot to do something like that. No sense at all! Might have been on drugs and on a mission of another who sent him... evil lurks. Martin Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

There's a "supply dump" for the phone company locally - Dozens and dozens of spools of nice fat cable, surrounded by a 12 foot tall chain-link fence topped with razor wire, with at least 3 signs on each side, plus two more directly on the gate, one at "adult" eye level, and the other right next to the padlock, all of them reading as follows: "*NOTICE* The reels stored at this site hold fiber optic cable, which contains no copper - Smile for the cameras"

As far as I'm aware, the site hasn't been tampered with anytime recently :)

an underground

Not unless you consider a 25 year old to be a kid, and he was trying to cut one of the three phases while standing on a grounded conductor. A witness said he heard the bang and looked up to see him fall back, and to the ground. The report said that he made his living by cleaning up construction sites, which have recently been plagued with copper thefts. It looks like they are staking out construction sites and waiting for the the plumbers to finish, then they steal the wire and copper pipe. One building was hit three times.

On Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:04:00 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Michael A. Terrell" quickly quoth:

Oh, NO! He was a valid Florida voter, too!

-- Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. -- Rodin

On Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:28:06 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Michael A. Terrell" quickly quoth:

Well, a cremation urn is a lot cheaper to the taxpayers than a lengthy trial, untold appeals, and prison keep, huh? 2 points for Darwin!

-- Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. -- Rodin

======================= You have again identified the problem with language in that words don't mean what we think these [ought to] mean. "Good" is a [rapidly and erratically] moving target, highly dependent on both the person using it and the context in which they are using it, thus the difficulty in cross socio-economic class communication, even if they [nominally] speak the same [English] language.

This also points up the insidious danger of allowing the creation, continued existence, and especially the expansion of significant numbers of marganalized/criminalized people in our society.

Like the ad said "you can pay me now or you can pay me later," and "later" is showing up with the first installment of that bill. To get a feel for what is about to occur, talk to a resident of the larger Latin American urban areas such as Rio, Sao Paulo, Bogota, or Buenos Aires. The results of the policies [by both political parties] that destroyed/exported the minimum wage entry level jobs these people depended on are now beginning to bite as deeply into the well-being and pocketbooks of the middle and upper classes and their communities as they have done for years to the under-classes and their communities.

Unka George (George McDuffee) ..................................................................... The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.

Denis Diderot (1713-84), French philosopher. Refutation of Helvétius (written 1773-76; first published 1875; repr. in Selected Writings, ed. by Lester G. Crocker, 1966).