Register now to get rid of these ads!

Own a machine shop? Beware of scrappers.

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by bobss396, May 3, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Kramer
    Joined: Mar 19, 2007
    Posts: 911

    Kramer
    Member

    That is how it is here in Oregon. ID required, and license plate number. And if you are bringing in copper, brass, aluminum, etc. (not steel) , you will not get paid that day. You will receive a check in the mail.
     
  2. 56sedandelivery
    Joined: Nov 21, 2006
    Posts: 6,695

    56sedandelivery
    Member Emeritus

    Same sort of situation here; they don't give you more than $39.00 in cash, the rest has to be mailed, and in check form; that helps to weed out the transients. ALL vehicles also require title here. I took a bunch of batteries in several years ago, and mixed in them were batteries from our portable X-Ray machines that had been replaced; they were scratching their heads on those batteries, but did take them. I also had quite a bit of lead from the Nuclear Medicine Department, all marked with the "radiation" decal; again they took it all, after I showed them my X-Ray licenses. I got the impression they would take anything, even if it was questionable. Butch/56sedandelivery.
     
  3. 63comet
    Joined: Jan 31, 2006
    Posts: 508

    63comet
    Member

    In the midst of my divorce, business closing, etc... general hard times thing... I had the bulk o my tools, stuff my dad left me and what not, lots of car parts, various other things stored at a house my family owned. It was in need of repairs desperate and we were in the midst of tryin to work that out too. It is really amazing how quickly an empty house can go downhill.

    House got hit by metal thiefs. All my tools, parts, etc... Wires from the walls, pipes. Smashed a Hammond organ I had just to get the internal framing. Situation that rather sickens me still. Unfortunately there was no insurance due to the house being deemed abandoned already by the city. The thiefs left the house in a basically condemned state. We wound up just selling the lot to the crazy across the street neighbor who wanted it to help shield her from any new neighbors.
     
  4. afaulk
    Joined: Jul 20, 2011
    Posts: 1,194

    afaulk
    Member

    :D X-2 you must be my brother, just from another mother!
     
  5. 49ratfink
    Joined: Feb 8, 2004
    Posts: 18,828

    49ratfink
    Member
    from California

    scrappers should be caned when caught. like they do in Singapore. nothing better than giant scars and extreme pain to make you think twice about doing something like that again.
     
  6. czuch
    Joined: Sep 23, 2008
    Posts: 2,688

    czuch
    Member
    from vail az

    It will keep happening till crack heads start getting stolen. Nobody will look for them.
    My brother's neighbor was fixing the house to live in. The wires and plumbing got swiped 3 times. The first time the guy was broken hearted, The second he was pissed. Then the joint mysteriously burnt down.
     
  7. bobj49f2
    Joined: Jun 1, 2008
    Posts: 1,926

    bobj49f2
    Member

    Back in the early '80s I worked at an auto parts store in the core of Milwaukee. I drove a delivery truck and one of the drivers' jobs was fueling the truck in a lot in across from the store. One Saturday I finished fueling the trucks and as I was walking across the street I saw a blue two door Caddy with the driver holding his seat forward and 2-3 other guys coming out the back service door with brand new in the box radiators. I walked into the store and asked my boss if they had sold a bunch of radiators to some guys in the back. There radiator shop closed at noon and this was about 2pm. My boss said "No" and called everyone in the store to go in back. We nabbed the driver but his buddies took off into the neighborhood. They called the cops but before they came the driver asked my boss if he could talk to his buddies outside and my boss said,"Sure, go ahead". The guy just casually walked out the front door. My boss was a total ass.

    We had a practice at the store while loading our trucks, one person had to stand guard. We'd change places as we filled our truck. If the trucks were left unattended for any time they would had stuff stolen.

    The was a scrap dealer in the in the inner city of Milwaukee where every house that wasn't occupied had it's aluminum siding stripped up to 8-9 feet, about the highest a person could reach to rip the siding off.

    I worked a place where the owner of the building did utility work, underground pipes and electrical. One job he had lengths of heavy copper wire, maybe 10-20 feet long. He spent a week stripping he insulation off of it. He piled it up in the back of the property. The property was surrounded on three sides with a 6' high fence with barbed wire at the top. At the back of the property there was an abandoned train embankment about 30' high. The following week I see him steaming. Some one over the weekend came down the embankment and dragged all of his bare copper wire up the embankment and down the block to a street that dead ended at the embankment.

    A local farmer was eating breakfast and heard some noise outside. Just as he got to the door to check it out he saw a truck with one of his implements hitched to the back drive out of his driveway. He hoped in his truck and followed the guy to an abandoned quarry. He called the cops on the way and they met him there. They busted a ring of thieves that had been going around the area stealing farm implements and anything else made of metal.

    And it goes on.
     
  8. BOBCRMAN
    Joined: Nov 10, 2005
    Posts: 846

    BOBCRMAN
    Member
    from Holly

    Flint Mi. is one of the worst. It has gotten so bad that the city is trying to make anyone (citizens) selling scrap metal must have a scrapper license.

    Even with everything behind ten ft. chain link and razor wire. I average $3500.00 per year losses. The guy across the street is always getting hit for fuel/ Implement tires and tracks.

    They will strip a house of all metals in a few hours while the owner is away at work. Man hole covers, aluminum traffic signs and traffic signals. Cemetaries have to guard their buildings and air equipment. Churches etc.

    An old girlfriend of mine. Went on vacation for a week and returned to her tri-level house with water 6ft. deep running out the lower level windows. They stripped all the pipes up to the running water meter. All the siding off the back side, and she lives in a "good" area.. :eek:
     
  9. von zipper
    Joined: Nov 23, 2008
    Posts: 1,015

    von zipper
    Member

    I Chicago they stole, and scrapped 8 schoolbuses! They're in jail now!
     
  10. acadian_carguy
    Joined: Apr 23, 2008
    Posts: 795

    acadian_carguy
    Member

    We are getting a line put around the back of our house for natural gas to run the new BBQ we got. The installer told us to not use copper, as drug addicts might see it and try and steal the line (?)
     
  11. Ester Eddie
    Joined: Feb 26, 2012
    Posts: 3,988

    Ester Eddie
    Member
    from Alaska

    Man some of these stories are crazy.Glad I live up north.Most folks bring in beer cans,cars,pots and pans electrical cords ,brass figures and stuff.We get contractors that bring copper and brass but One out of 30 people seem shady to me which isn't so bad.
     
  12. acadian_carguy
    Joined: Apr 23, 2008
    Posts: 795

    acadian_carguy
    Member

    That has happened around here. I'm a liberal thinking guy, but I don't feel sorry for them at all! You should not have an addiction that you cannot afford.
     
  13. here they have to have a DL and vehicle reg. before they buy anything
    and it will be paid in a check
     
  14. stanlow69
    Joined: Feb 21, 2010
    Posts: 7,348

    stanlow69
    Member Emeritus

    When you live in a smaller town, you know who the crackheads are. You kind of feel sorry for them, You know the shitty life they have been handed to them. Some have good intentions, with very bad habits. It`s the men with good rapoor in the community that do the drug running and supplying are the ones that need to be shot.
     
  15. Ob1
    Joined: Jan 21, 2010
    Posts: 411

    Ob1
    Member

    Shitty life handed to them?

    More like shitty life they choose to live.
     
  16. Motomike43
    Joined: Jan 13, 2013
    Posts: 156

    Motomike43
    Member

    They stole the back window off the cap on my shop truck because it had an aluminum frame. They will steal anything they can get their hands on. I now keep all my scrap inside. When the pile gets too big I load it up and run it 20 min down the road to the scrap yard. I have heard stories of them stealing the A/C units right off the roof's of commercial buildings. My dad is a plumber in New construction... back when they still used copper for water lines they would rough in a whole house...come back the next morning and the whole house would be stripped clean. They would even pull the copper out of finish un-lived in homes and cut the line right off at the well in the basement. They would come in the next day... basement flooded, water still running. Another guy I know came home one day and found a guy cutting parts off his fishing boat.
     
  17. supervert
    Joined: Mar 8, 2009
    Posts: 433

    supervert
    Member


    First off, you don't know what the fuck your talking about. I live in a farming area, and the guys that I deal with get paid from farmers to clean their property or are allowed to clean the property for free And don't steal anything. When they have something for me I go to the farm to look at it and most of the time the owner is their.

    Second off, I have had more shit stolen from me than I can count, so there is no fucking way I would take anything that I thought was stollen.

    Third, the two guys aren't even tweaks, they are some old timers that just work hard at something that doesn't pay much.

    Most of the stuff that they recycle is t-post and barbed wire that they clean off of old farms that are being converted to rice farms.
     
  18. LostHope
    Joined: Jul 9, 2008
    Posts: 688

    LostHope
    Member

    I actually am a scrapper and have three other hot rod buddys that are scrappers(All drug free!!)..., Not everyone of us are drugged out tweaks stealing peoples shit! I get all my business through word of mouth, business cards,posting flyers, and craigslist ad's to pick up their unwanted items...im on a scrap metal forum with scrappers all around the world and theres alot of great guys just like folks here that scrap for a living, Theres just alot of screwed up people that steal stuff to make a quick buck at the scrap yard to support thier drug habit and it sucks to hear everyone bashing "Scrapper's" when theres tons of guys like me that run "scrapping" just like any other business, providing a service for folks in need ......

    and in my area this is how most scrap yards work ,scrap yards require you have a i.d , license plate number, and photo taken..and most yards here require you to wait 3 days before they pay you for certain scrap like copper,brass,aluminum..etc..over a certain amount..so the local law enforcement can look for stolen goods that might come to the yard..
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2013
  19. slammed
    Joined: Jun 10, 2004
    Posts: 8,150

    slammed
    Member

    Cool work truck!
     
  20. Ester Eddie
    Joined: Feb 26, 2012
    Posts: 3,988

    Ester Eddie
    Member
    from Alaska

    Lost hope you scrap because you are lazy! Just kidding that's what someone said about scrappers .I'm glad you chimed in here . I weigh up guys like you too and folks like you are anything but lazy. Nothing wrong with working for yourself. Thanks and best of luck ,
     
  21. LostHope
    Joined: Jul 9, 2008
    Posts: 688

    LostHope
    Member

    Thank you slammed!


    LOL Far from lazy, work any chance i get, Started scrapping when construction work here hit rock bottom...its hard work and you have to be persistent in finding scrap jobs...it keeps gas in the tank,pays bills and supports my car habit.....better then sitting on my butt collecting unemployment not attempting to find a job and turning it into a career like most folks i know...
     
  22. reefer
    Joined: Oct 17, 2001
    Posts: 787

    reefer
    Member

    It was a major problem here with Pikeys stealing lead and copper off roofs of churches, cutting high power electrical cables with axes and stealing refrigeration and ac copper pipes etc.......The government introduced a law making it illegal to pay cash for scrap, and you can only get paid into a bank account now.....of course there will be rouge traders who will pay under the counter, but we have certainly not had to replace any copper tubing for customers since this became law, so I guess it has helped with the problem.
     
  23. 66tintop
    Joined: Nov 7, 2012
    Posts: 450

    66tintop
    Member
    from Canada



    he's a beauty ! man's best friend :)
     
  24. A while back I had some guys go in and steal a '59 Pontiac carcass I'd saved for the chassis parts. It was way off the road and you had to know it was there or be trespassing by about half a mile to find it. Gone.
     
  25. Jimbo17
    Joined: Aug 19, 2008
    Posts: 3,959

    Jimbo17
    Member

    I have a friend who owns a U-Haul dealership here in Florida and on his way to work one day he spots a U-Hall truck inside a fenced in area of a body shop.

    He pulled over to get a better look and realizes they have started to remove the name on the side of the truck. He jumped over the fence and wrote down the ID number and sure enough the truck was reported stolen from up north.

    When he calls the Highway Patrol and they come out the owner of the body shop got in their face about them being on his property.

    They arrested him for have stolen trucks on his property and resisting arrest.

    Turns out the trucks were having the names removed and being shipped from the port of Jacksonville to South America where they were already sold to buyers.

    It seems this goes on all the time and someone told me that if your car is stolen in the LA area the first place the police look is around the shipping ports.

    Jimbo
     
  26. 357 TWO TO THE HEAD AND ONE TO THE CHEST. works for me
     
  27. LOW LID DUDE
    Joined: Aug 16, 2007
    Posts: 1,223

    LOW LID DUDE
    Member
    from Colorado

    At our shop thieves were climbing the fence and carting off all of our radiator cores and A/C cores.Then I heavy nasty axle greesed the fence mixed with non drying tar. We got on video the moron climbing over the fence , Stopping what he was doing trying to wipe the crap off ,jumping all over the place you could see he was really pissed off. Left with nothing and hasn't returned since.LOL.
     
  28. We don't worry too much about a 600 lb barrel of stainless steel chips walking away by itself, especially from the height of a loading dock. Which is 10' back from the door. They would have to back a truck up to it and make a lot of noise.

    I guess some parts of the country are real desperate if they are taking garden tools.

    Bob
     
  29. resinjeff
    Joined: Aug 25, 2008
    Posts: 93

    resinjeff
    Member
    from detroit

    come to detroit, the scrapper capital of the world! my son does a bit of ligit scrapping, and the stories he tells! he saw a couple guy at the scales with a brand new minivan all cut up on a trailer, the guy running the place asked" is that a stolen car or just a bunch of metal?".there are no questions asked.the only laws are that they take a pic of the load and keep it on record. the cops have to go looking at every scrap yard to try and find stolen goods. and in detroit, we have whole neighborhoods that have been scrapped. the cops dont come for much of anything..
     
  30. gary terhaar
    Joined: Jul 23, 2007
    Posts: 656

    gary terhaar
    Member
    from oakdale ny

    Where is your friends shop if you don't mind me asking.
    Some areas tend to more brazing than others. I have a shop in Bohemia and do aluminum welding for a outdoor furniture shop, it is good for a few bucks a month during the summer.
    My shop is small so when I finish big stuff I put it in a parking spot in my lot by the front door awaiting them to pickup.
    At about two in the afternoon a ratty red ford f100 crawls past the shop and catches my eye. He turns around and slithers back stopping in front of the furniture. I walk up and say "keep going it belongs to someone".
    He says "aww man just lookin". Then I walk up and look in the back of his truck.
    Now he gets defensive,telling me if he wanted too he would just take it and not to look in his truck.
    The last thing I said was Try and take it,it will give me the reason I need.
    He slithered down the road from there.
    Skinny crack head,would have to hit him with something for fear of him bleeding something on me when I hit him.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

Register now to get rid of these ads!

Archive

Copyright © 1995-2021 The Jalopy Journal: Steal our stuff, we'll kick your teeth in. Terms of Service. Privacy Policy.

Atomic Industry
Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.