Man set on fire while trying to steal copper wire (video)

[Army of One]

Darwin Award winner 283838383

http://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=529823620466699&id=100003171967716&locale2=en_US

[Dr.J]

Won't recover.

[falco]

The guy was melting down alive, still had the resillience to try to get loose. Have to respect that.

[WEIBK]

POOR MAN. WANT TO LIVE, THIS IS THE LIFE FOR POOR. GOD BLESS HIM.

[oldtimer1]

So thieves are just poor people? They should be stealing food then. Copper pays big bucks. He's not the first to get zapped stealing copper. Go on vacation and come back to your house to find the copper wiring gone and find out that insurance won't pay for it. When the electrician gives you a massive bill you can say it was just a poor person trying to get ahead as the thief lives it up in a bar after buying cocaine and a plane ticket to Miami to party.

[wolfrittner]

That does not look like the guy is going to make some profit on it.
I feel bad for him. he just wanted to make some money to give it to the poor
Robin Hood of Peace

[wolfrittner]

Won't recover.

All drugs! Dead at 24

[Marty Champions]

learning electricity the hard way

[Simple Simon]

learning electricity the hard way

That could have been you in your cellar a few weeks ago if you hadnt sought guidance from your fellow getbiggers.

[Super Natural]

Good! They should leave Mr. crispy up there to serve as a warning to would be thieves!   Dodgy scrap dealers who buy the copper create the demand though...Our lines were down for 3 weeks because of these idiots...3rd world problems  

[Tapeworm]

Theiving copper has got to be an urban myth. The dollar to weight ratio is so low that you'd need a big truck to make a haul worthwhile, and stealthy removal would be so labor intensive (ba dum) that, even if you excluded the tools and transport costs, you'd make more flipping burgers.  I could see contractors grabbing what's easily accessed in the course of normal demolition.  Stealing installed copper for profit, no way.  I'm sure it's happened on the basis of the myth, which seems popular ever since that Sopranos episode, but I imagine those who gave it a shot without doing the math were left disappointed.   

I know nothing of this story but am guessing he was trying to get free power, not free copper.

[Super Natural]

Theiving copper has got to be an urban myth. The dollar to weight ratio is so low that you'd need a big truck to make a haul worthwhile, and stealthy removal would be so labor intensive (ba dum) that, even if you excluded the tools and transport costs, you'd make more flipping burgers.  I could see contractors grabbing what's easily accessed in the course of normal demolition.  Stealing installed copper for profit, no way.  I'm sure it's happened on the basis of the myth, which seems popular ever since that Sopranos episode, but I imagine those who gave it a shot without doing the math were left disappointed.  

I know nothing of this story but am guessing he was trying to get free power, not free copper.

Not an urban myth in South Africa    holding thumbs more of these annoying fuckers fry themselves..

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/general/65142-cable-theft-costs-r5-billion-a-year.html

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/80657-telkom-cable-theft-cuts-services-in-hard-hit-area.html

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/general/73716-copper-cable-theft-on-the-rise.html

[polychronopolous]

Theiving copper has got to be an urban myth. The dollar to weight ratio is so low that you'd need a big truck to make a haul worthwhile, and stealthy removal would be so labor intensive (ba dum) that, even if you excluded the tools and transport costs, you'd make more flipping burgers.  I could see contractors grabbing what's easily accessed in the course of normal demolition.  Stealing installed copper for profit, no way.  I'm sure it's happened on the basis of the myth, which seems popular ever since that Sopranos episode, but I imagine those who gave it a shot without doing the math were left disappointed.  

I know nothing of this story but am guessing he was trying to get free power, not free copper.

A buddy of mine told me a friend of his and him pretty much got the green light to strip copper from a contractor or some shit like that years ago but he said it ended up being such a pain in the ass to strip it off that they eventually just said "fuck it" and gave up the whole idea.

[BB]

Not an urban myth in South Africa    holding thumbs more of these annoying fuckers fry themselves..

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/general/65142-cable-theft-costs-r5-billion-a-year.html

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/80657-telkom-cable-theft-cuts-services-in-hard-hit-area.html

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/general/73716-copper-cable-theft-on-the-rise.html

Same here in the States, although the ones that burn themselves up are usually druggies or teenagers that haven't figured out the economics of it all.

The smarter druggies and illegal scrappers usually wait for new public works or foreclosures to steal from. Some even target larger scrap yards, and boost stuff from the back, and bring it around the front.

As far as stripping, etc....? They just burn it, and take a lower price.

On a related note, this doc about scrapping firing ranges looks interesting -

.

[Tapeworm]

A buddy of mine told me a friend of his and him pretty much got the green light to strip copper from a contractor or some shit like that years ago but he said it ended up being such a pain in the ass to strip it off that they eventually just said "fuck it" and gave up the whole idea.

Yep, there's probably better salvage money in halfway decent floorboards.  I guess there are some places in the world like SN said where it's a worthwhile thing for people to steal installed cable, but you'd still need some major equipment to expose, spool, and haul miles of it.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars in machinery, not just a few guys with shovels and hacksaws.  Doesn't take a lot of headscratching to see it wasn't some floppy titted tribe out of National Geographic who uninstalled the stuff.

It's not for the copper content, that's for sure.  Plumbing pipes, forget about it.  No one is melting it down into copper ingots to smuggle 'cross border.

I think I'd go for a cast iron sink (fuck yeah!) but planished copper as part of a splashback or a rangehood might be cool.  Goddamn, I've got exquisite taste.

[The True Adonis]

Theiving copper has got to be an urban myth. The dollar to weight ratio is so low that you'd need a big truck to make a haul worthwhile, and stealthy removal would be so labor intensive (ba dum) that, even if you excluded the tools and transport costs, you'd make more flipping burgers.  I could see contractors grabbing what's easily accessed in the course of normal demolition.  Stealing installed copper for profit, no way.  I'm sure it's happened on the basis of the myth, which seems popular ever since that Sopranos episode, but I imagine those who gave it a shot without doing the math were left disappointed.   

I know nothing of this story but am guessing he was trying to get free power, not free copper.

Happens all the time.

[The True Adonis]

Yep, there's probably better salvage money in halfway decent floorboards.  I guess there are some places in the world like SN said where it's a worthwhile thing for people to steal installed cable, but you'd still need some major equipment to expose, spool, and haul miles of it.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars in machinery, not just a few guys with shovels and hacksaws.  Doesn't take a lot of headscratching to see it wasn't some floppy titted tribe out of National Geographic who uninstalled the stuff.

It's not for the copper content, that's for sure.  Plumbing pipes, forget about it.  No one is melting it down into copper ingots to smuggle 'cross border.

I think I'd go for a cast iron sink (fuck yeah!) but planished copper as part of a splashback or a rangehood might be cool.  Goddamn, I've got exquisite taste.

#1 Bare Bright Copper Wire    $2.62 / lb
#1 Copper Tubing    $2.54 / lb
#2 Copper Tubing    $2.33 / lb

Thats what one place I know of pays.

[Schnauzer]

CNBC Jul 2013

   Copper is such a hot commodity that thieves are going after the metal anywhere they can find it: an electrical power station in Wichita, Kan., or half a dozen middle-class homes in Morris Township, N.J. Even on a Utah highway construction site, crooks managed to abscond with six miles of copper wire.

Those are just a handful of recent targets across the U.S. in the $1 billion business of copper theft.

"There's no question the theft has gotten much, much worse," said Mike Adelizzi, president of the American Supply Association, a nonprofit group representing distributors and suppliers in the plumbing, heating, cooling and industrial pipe industries.

"There was a perception that copper theft slowed down after the recession, and the rise in commodity prices seemed to ease off," he said. "But that's not the case. The theft has only been growing."

Stolen copper is valuable as scrap because the metal is used for so many items—from fiber optics to plumbing to anything electrical—and the profits are tempting. 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100917758#. 

[The True Adonis]

Yep, there's probably better salvage money in halfway decent floorboards.  I guess there are some places in the world like SN said where it's a worthwhile thing for people to steal installed cable, but you'd still need some major equipment to expose, spool, and haul miles of it.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars in machinery, not just a few guys with shovels and hacksaws.  Doesn't take a lot of headscratching to see it wasn't some floppy titted tribe out of National Geographic who uninstalled the stuff.

It's not for the copper content, that's for sure.  Plumbing pipes, forget about it.  No one is melting it down into copper ingots to smuggle 'cross border.

I think I'd go for a cast iron sink (fuck yeah!) but planished copper as part of a splashback or a rangehood might be cool.  Goddamn, I've got exquisite taste.

In NC they recently had to write tougher copper theft laws as a result of theft.

[polychronopolous]

Yep, there's probably better salvage money in halfway decent floorboards.  I guess there are some places in the world like SN said where it's a worthwhile thing for people to steal installed cable, but you'd still need some major equipment to expose, spool, and haul miles of it.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars in machinery, not just a few guys with shovels and hacksaws.  Doesn't take a lot of headscratching to see it wasn't some floppy titted tribe out of National Geographic who uninstalled the stuff.

It's not for the copper content, that's for sure.  Plumbing pipes, forget about it.  No one is melting it down into copper ingots to smuggle 'cross border.

I think I'd go for a cast iron sink (fuck yeah!) but planished copper as part of a splashback or a rangehood might be cool.  Goddamn, I've got exquisite taste.

I drove down a backroad in East Texas one time where an obvious abandoned mobile home had "No Copper" spray painted on a piece of plywood and posted side of the trailer.

Very odd to see at the time but I suppose it was a way of keeping meth heads from snooping around.

[Tapeworm]

#1 Bare Bright Copper Wire    $2.62 / lb
#1 Copper Tubing    $2.54 / lb
#2 Copper Tubing    $2.33 / lb

Thats what one place I know of pays.

Yeah, that seems like a silly thing to spend time stealing.

[The True Adonis]

Yeah, that seems like a silly thing to spend time stealing.

Not really.  Someone not too long ago was busted with 100,000 dollars worth in one haul from two houses and a building he hit in one night.

[Europe]

[polychronopolous]

Wrong thread, dumbass.

[Schnauzer]