Saturday, July 14, 2007

Stealing Canada -- literally

I did a job last year where about $500 worth of wire got stolen on us.

CanWestNews
Aluminum billboards disappearing in Vancouver, stainless steel tanker trucks reported stolen in Quebec, a copper wire theft in New Brunswick resulting in a death, beer kegs in Nova Scotia and a two-tonne bronze statue snagged from an Ontario park[...]

[...]The phenomenon is nationwide, but British Columbia has seen the most frequent incidents, says Len Shaw, executive director of the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries, while Ontario takes the cake in terms of the volume of metal stolen.

In January, thieves made off with aluminum bleachers at a baseball diamond in Ucluelet, B.C. The province has been dealing for months with the theft of scrap metal from Vancouver billboards and memorial plaques removed from park benches in Nanaimo, among other targets[...]

[...]The metals that are getting the most attention from thieves are bronze, stainless steel, copper and aluminum[...]


They're stealing America too - Colorado Springs has an ongoing problem with wiring going missing in its street lights.

2 comments:

Ymarsakar said...

I've heard about this before. Taking the metal off rail guards so cars go off the side of the street.

Very amusing.

For anarchists.

Mike said...

I love the stories where the copper thieves get electrocuted. They're some of the best Darwin Awards candidates you can find!