Own a machine shop? Beware of scrappers.

Last year I had a bum steal 4 batteries out of a DC backup power unit I had removed ( under contract) from a cell site decomissioning. they come in at 115 pounds each and about 600.00
I found the place where they were scrapped, but they were gone allready. then a neighbor dimed the guy out. I found him, he denied it but I said the scrap yard had him ion video and my next stop was teh State police. He fessed up and beggted me not to call. I took his pick up truck & Meyers plow set up in trade for letting him go.
The cops wouldn't have done anything and I didn't actually have any video....

 

On a brighter scrap note, I am/was a cellular contractor usually building the towers everyone loves to hate. A few years ago when AT&T Merged with Cingular, I had a contract to decomission the extra sites. Did that for about 3 years. Each site has about 1000 pounds of large coaxial cable and some of the electrical feeders are 750 MCM wire, basically lots n lots of wire and cable per site, solid copper ground bars, all sorts. Most days the guys took out 3 sites a day. They PAID 475.00 per site to dispose of the copper! !
Yes, I was a scrapper king. I still have 4000 pounds or prepared #1 copper on pallets in my shop, money for a rainy day I figure. I was totally legit, well still am but that project is long over as is my business essentially but that is another thing entirely...related only in that the crappy economy and the governments desire to ruin the nation has led to many people finding " alternate " means to support themselves.
I saved all my life and anticipate being fine, didn't want anyone out there to worry for me

Cheers!

 

In the industrial park my shop is located in I see scrapper driving through all of the time. One day I had cut up an old panel truck and what was left was mostly bondo covered sheet metal. I had it all sitting on my tilt bed car trailer and was preparing to drive it to the scrap yard when I got a knock on my door. One of the scrapping crews stopped and was interested in the scrap I had on my trailer. The first guy offered me $100 for all of it. I wasn't expecting even getting that much from the scrap yard. A second guy, seemed like th the boss of the operation walked up and told me he'd give me $75. I told him his guy had already offered me $100. I was paid $100 and they unloaded it from my trailer to there's. I thought it was a great deal. Didn't have to waste my time or gas hauling it away and I got what I thought it might have been worth.

The only uncomfortabel part was these guys had the typical scrapper rig, beat to hell truck and trailer. They started making comments about how nice of a trailer I had were looking it over. There trailer went home that night and stayed there.

 

If Detroit and their police had it together, they would pass some more restictive laws like other areas have and enforce them by posting a cop at each scrap yard during business hours as a deterent and to make arrests.

Unless you know your scrapper, you really can't trust them. Many are not scrappers, but out and out thieves looking for an opportunity to strike. They'll make a routine and get to knows yours while they case the place. Next thing a guy knows, his house or garage have been cleaned out.

Some of the scrap yards are as bad as some of the petty thieves. They willingly turn a blind eye to flip an entire load of stolen goods, then wholesale it out the back door real quick so the evedence is gone before someone shows up looking for their copper house wiring and pipe. Fencing stolen goods.
Here in town, police recently made some arrests of a scrap yard that was openly buying manhole covers and bronze grave markers (is nothing sacred!!!???).

Because many of us think of the bummy looking guy with an old truck as being "down on his luck, uninteligent and starving", they get a break when they're caught red handed when they state "Duh, I thought it was trash".
Get a plate #, detain them and call the police. Even if they are in a trash can on your property, it's trespassing.

 

We had some guys here robbing banks for the copper in the coins.

 

at the steel company i work for they would steel scrap at least 3 nights a week. one bold f***er even backed his truck up to the dumpster in the middle of the day!

 

My dad went to his camp last summer and the power was off.... flip the breaker, still nothing. Went out side and the meter was gone off the side of the house. This was taken with the power ON!

 

here in Detroit the problem isn't totally on the scrappers ...
its the yards that buy from them
and legitimate scrappers get blamed
I m not one for more government regulation but here is a case where its needed
my cousins husband owns a automotive wrecking yard and there is a scrap metal yard across the street from him his yard has been broken into numerous times
and the stuff was sold the next day across the street
the asshat that owns the yard across the street doesn't care ! he will buy anything at a reduced rate and not check ID and he just quickly loads it into a dumpster and takes it to the shredder and the metals are sold for pennies on the pound instead of their true value

Michigan needs to crack down hard
but every time they try the ACLU says that the over regulation is hurting the poor

 

At the auto parts store I worked at in the early '80s, the one I mentioned in a previous post, we always had to watch everything or else it would walk away. If the people in the neighborhood weren't stealing from you they were always offering deals on stuff they had for sale. There was a large overhead door in the back for receiving. One day the guy working back there found his radio was missing, it was a cheap black AC/DC type radio. A few days later one of the neighborhood "salesmen" came by and offered the receiving guy a deal on a silver AC/AD type radio. The same type of radio that went missing a few days before but this one was silver. The receiving guy told the seller it looked just like his radio and flipped it over and there was his name he scribed into the bottom. He took the radio and told the guy to go F himself. From that day on there was a silver radio in the receiving area.

 

It's got to be next to impossible to trace the origins of scrap metal unless there is some kind of identifiable markings on it.

The scum scrappers aren't dumb. They will know enough to mix up their scrap so that it's not detectable. Sure if there's a report of white 100' of aluminum siding and 50 feet of 1/2" copper pipe stolen from a certain building and a guy shows up with that exact amount that would easy. But if the guy cuts up the siding and pipe and only scraps 25' at a time along with some other crap that's not going to sound any alarm. I realize most of these guys are in it for the quick turn around but after a few of them get caught for being stupid the others are going to learn and come up with a system to mask what they are bringing in.

 

Leave two brake drums outside, two feet apart, concealed wire running from each to electrical outlet. Step up current at desired.

 

Make sure to post a sign that says "Electric Brake Drums" so you dont get in trouble for setting a booby trap.

 

here,as in a lot of places, if it's at the curb, it's considered abandoned, and free game, I have a friend who drives around looking for junk at the curb, he's as honest as you can get, wouldn't steal a dime, always put the lids back on cans and doesn't leave a mess, these are the guys the thieves are hurting, he's supporting his family, as far as tougher laws,they need to be aimed at the yards, the drug addicts dont care about laws, we had someone go out to farmers fuel, and rip the underground wiring right up out of the ground, shut him down for two weeks while they repaired the damage, the farmers also suffer, they get the wiring for their irrigation pivots stolen, they found a crispy critter out there last year, that stuff is 440 volts, last thing he ever tried to steal

 

The thieves and tweekers around here have given whatever few honest scrap guys a bad reputation. As far as I am concerned, they are all crooked around here, unless I know them personally. One good thing is that the local scrap yards are becoming more proactive about the sources of their scrap because of the penalties they face for accepting stolen goods, and there have been several busts locally because of it.

 

Bob,
Not just machine shops, when the fife was working for GE supply she went to the warehopuse to check some recently delivered wire, found the top boxes in the pallet empty and the warehouseman sound asleep in the office. The order was weighed when it was delivered a policy that she had instituted and when she weighed it it was a little over 100 pounds light.

It gets better, I had a rare 2 year only B/B block setting on my driveway behind my jeep pick-up. It had been there about 6 months waiting for a friend to pick it up [he has a Dodge that used that particular block]. I went out to check the mail and there was this skinny brown toothed muther trying to load it in the back of his old rattled out S-10, and asked me if I would help him. I told him sure but first he had to tell me what it was and he said just an old scrap engine block.

 

they could solve a lot of this very simple, everyone who sells anything other then tin cans, basic license to sell it, with their picture,, if you are a felon, guess what? you dont get one, just like gun laws, make it simple for the guys who try to earn an honest living, this would weed out a lot of the crap and let the honest guys stay in business, I dont like big brother watching either, but I'm sick of everything being stolen

 

Out here in California is the same as others have posted, drivers license, thumb print on a scanner, and it always gets mailed to you in check form.

Being stolen from is the worst feeling, and hard to get past for me, but I know there are honest scrappers out there just trying to make a living.

We turn in our own stuff at work that has any decent value, electric motors, compressors, and batteries from failed equipment, until I got there, they actually paid a guy to come in and take the stuff!! now we have BBQ's and pizza parties for the whole staff once a month!

The lesser value iron and steel, I know a hard working Mexican family from the area that scraps to eat, you can tell they are hardly making it, I have a phone number I call them at when we have a large pile, and they do a really nice sweep job when they are done loading too! So it works for everybody!

But the news is full of the crack heads that fry themselves stealing copper for sure, and it's a shame we have to lock up and protect every little thing of value these days.........

 

Man O Man someone call the waaaaabulence PS don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

 

Digging a hole aren't you? Too many assumptions by guys like you on this thread.

 

My son is a scrapper in NW Colorado and says that he has stuff stolen from him at his storage yard. The thieves even try to sell it back to him. The area that he lives in probably has many meth heads as they have normal people.

Lee

 

The sad thing is I have talked to people in all parts of the country, in some of the most beautiful idealic rural locations and every one of them said although they live in a beautiful area it is infested with meth labs. I've talked to cops in these areas and they say behind the beauty they don't know what they will walk into when they go to a isolated cabin in the woods. It really is a shame.

 

In my area that's already done. The local scrapyards all belong to an organization that shares police alerts, and they take ID and wont pay cash anymore for scrap. They also wont give a check, it has to be mailed to an address. It's done a lot to cut down on thieves stealing, and also catching them if they steal. If you're an honest scrapper you don't mind giving ID, or having a check sent to your home or business.