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Shocking Crimes & Deep-Fried Copper Thieves

That is one of the worst written and most atrociously punctuated articles I've read for quite some time.
 
Then you obviously don't read the Yorkshire Evening Post very often. :lol: it is also a right wing pos that I wouldn't buy the hardcopy of.
 
I've just clicked on the first three articles I found, and they're all hideous. My favourite is this:

Mr Edeson was pronounced already dead at the scene.
Click to expand...

What does it mean? Was he dead before he died again?
 
He was not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead!

I'm not much of a grammar snob, but i'd have to agree that is particularly bad. :lol:
 
Man with severe burns suspected of metal theft
Man left with electrocution-type injuries after thieves allegedly target an electricity substation in the West Midlands
Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 12 November 2011 17.12 GMT

A man is fighting for his life in hospital with severe burns believed to have been sustained as thieves allegedly tried to steal metal from an electricity substation.
The man was admitted to hospital after an explosion at a substation in Oldbury, West Midlands, at 3.15am on Saturday.

The electrical blast on the Granada industrial estate, which disrupted local power supplies, happened after significant quantities of metal, including copper wiring, had been cut from the substation.

The accident came as police issued a warning that public safety was being put at risk by metal thieves who are compromising the emergency services by stealing valuable copper cabling for its scrap value.
Coastguard communications along the Solent were lost over a 36-hour period after thieves stole metal cable, disrupting its aerial signals.
Lighting over a mile-long stretch on the way into Leeds on the M1 motorway has also been stolen, while cable has even been stolen from Stansted airport.

Hospitals in the West Midlands were visited to check for any patients arriving with electrocution-type injuries and a 21-year-old man suffering from 60% burns was subsequently identified at Birmingham's City hospital.
Detective Sergeant Carl Russell, of West Midlands police, said: "The man has suffered extensive burns from his ankles up to his scalp which are consistent with having been electrocuted. He remains in a critical condition in hospital."

Attacks on BT's network have risen by 12% compared with 2010, with thieves spurred on by the rising cost of metal in the recession.
Luke Beeson, general manager at BT Security, said it was asking the government to help regulate scrap dealers.
Beeson added: "Stealing telecommunications cable requires some degree of organisation, planning, equipment and resources.
"Offenders cover the whole spectrum of criminality from opportunist thieves stealing small amounts through to organised criminal gangs with access to more resources and equipment causing major widespread disruption to our customers."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/1 ... etal-theft
 
Copper cable thief Keith Greaves electrocuted

A thief was electrocuted while trying to steal copper cables and a boiler, an inquest heard.
Father-of-two Keith Greaves, 40, had gone with a friend to steal the metal from service tunnels under a former hospital in Bodmin, Cornwall.
But batteries for an electric saw failed and they tried to tap power from 240v cables powering dialysis machines.
A coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death at the inquest at City Hall in Truro.

The inquest heard that Mr Greaves used a connector to tap into cables in the tunnel which powered equipment at a nearby NHS renal unit.
But the connector was designed for car batteries and was only able to handle 12v of power. :shock:
He died at the scene under St Lawrence's Hospital on 25 April.

Andrew Cox, Deputy Coroner for Cornwall, said: "I very much hope that anyone who has been here today or reads the reports gives cause to consider the perils of trespassing unlawfully on to a property and then engaging in an activity like this.
"It is an absolute tragedy that this has happened. It is a senseless waste of a young life."

Mr Greaves' friend Neil Knight told the inquest: "We had two batteries for the saw and we were trying to break up the tank.
"After the batteries ran out we stopped for 20 minutes for a break. We walked back through to a room where there were a lot of electrical cables.
"While he attempted to get power into the saw Keith took a grey cable from the side wall.
"He was going to use it to run an electrical cable off.
"I turned around to see in the darkness his torch illuminating from the floor. He was on his knees facing away from me."

Mr Knight unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate his friend and emergency services later declared Mr Greaves dead.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-15889043
 
Bare-chested Romanian man who left badly burned friend at hospital sought over metal theft
By Mail On Sunday Reporter
Last updated at 1:48 AM on 27th November 2011

Police have issued a picture of a bare-chested Romanian man they want to question over a metal theft that went wrong and left his accomplice with 60 per cent burns.
The image, captured from CCTV cameras, shows the man at Birmingham’s City Hospital at about 2.20am on November 12. The man told staff his name was Ciprian Baciu.

He had just dropped off his 21-year-old friend who had been scorched from top-to-toe when the electrical sub-station they had allegedly been ransacking for copper wiring exploded.
The injured man was later transferred to a specialist burns unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, where he is still in a critical condition.
The suspect [..] has since disappeared, although police have seized the car he was driving.

The injured man arrived at hospital just as power supply interruptions were reported on the Granada Industrial Estate in Oldbury, West Midlands.

Detective Sergeant Carl Russell, of West Midlands Police, said of the burns incident at the time: 'The man has suffered extensive burns from his ankles up to his scalp which are consistent with having been electrocuted. He remains in a critical condition.
'Sub-stations have huge voltages running through them and anyone tampering with them or trying to steal metal is putting their life on the line.'

Council leaders across the country have called for greater powers to tackle unscrupulous scrap-metal dealers.
Out-of-date legislation is hampering effective regulation of the industry and helping thieves profit from stolen copper, lead and bronze, the Local Government Association (LGA) said.
Theft of metal from railway lines, power stations and street lighting is estimated to cost the UK economy £770million a year and causes chaos on the transport network and to homes and businesses.
War memorials have been vandalised in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday by thieves prising away metal.

Anyone with information about either man can contact Detective Sergeant Carl Russell at West Midlands Police on 0345 113 5000.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1etwK8b1W
 
bareromanian.jpg


Oooh, do you suppose he likes industrial music and mood altering substances :lol: cross thread joke :lol:

Seriously though, I wonder why we aren;t hearing about prosecutions for the people that are buying this stuff from the thieves? Is it just not being reported? Or the prosecutions aren;t happeing? Or it's considered more newsworthy to have a go at 'chavvy' types and romanians?
 
An entirely different kind of shocking, I guess.

Glad she's gone down, the kids will be much better off without this one:

Leeds mum left kids in squalor

A Leeds mum who neglected her children by leaving their home without gas, electric or running water after stripping the property of copper piping has been jailed for two years.

Police and social services discovered the woman, her partner and two children living in squalor at the house in Leeds.

All four were sleeping in one room while 20 cannabis plants were growing in the other bedroom. The stench from the fridge made a police officer “wretch” as it contained rotten food.

Kitchen surfaces were covered with mould while the toilet was full of human waste and could not be flushed as the water supply had been cut off and there was no lighting.

There were no carpets in the rooms and floor and skirting boards had been removed in order to get to copper piping.

Kama Melly, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court the authorities were alerted in March when a housing officer visited the family home and noticed a “repugnant smell”.

The officer, a former social worker, described the state of the home as the as the worst he had ever seen.

Neighbours had also reported the couple over their concerns at the children being left outside in the sun.

Police and social services forced their way into the house on June 5 and the pair were arrested. The water tank had also been removed and the boiler dismantled.

Empty cider bottles were strewn around the house and there was dog excrement on the floor.

While on bail the mother, who was pregnant at the time, was arrested in a house nearby and found with a bag of tools. She later admitted breaking into other properties in the neighbourhood to steal scrap metal.

The court heard she caused £8,000 of damage to the properties as well as a further £8,000 in her own home.

She pleaded guilty to neglect, production of cannabis and theft and asked for 11 further offences to be taken into consideration by the court, She was jailed for two and a half years.

Her partner pleaded guilty to neglect and was jailed for 18 months. Theresa Clark, for the mother, said the children did not suffer any physical harm during the three-month period and she had an addiction to alcohol and amphetamines. The barrister said she stole copper piping and grew the cannabis in a bid to buy the children Christmas presents and pay for a bond on a new home.

Richard Reed, for the father, said he did not spend much time at the house and was not responsible for the damage. Mr Reed said his client also had a drink problem which he was trying to address.

Jailing them, judge James Spencer said: “You two decided that you had other priorities rather than these children.

“The standards which you generally adopted for your household were disgraceful.”
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http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... _1_4020106
 
This sort of thing is going to come to manslaughter sooner or later:

Llandough Hospital surgery suspended after cable theft

Eight cancer operations were cancelled after copper cabling was stolen from a hospital in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Eighty one patients were affected on Wednesday by the theft from a back-up generator at Llandough hospital near Cardiff.

Hospital managers said Tuesday's theft of 100m of cabling was "dangerous and irresponsible".

A new back-up generator is being tested before routine surgery can resume.

It was too late for Wednesday's morning list of 36 operations, including two breast cancer operations, which was cancelled as a precaution.

Another 45 operations scheduled for the afternoon were also cancelled after a meeting.

The University Health Board chief executive Jan Williams called the theft "mindless".

She said: "NHS staff work tirelessly to care for some of the most vulnerable members of our communities and it is depressing to note that, for these thieves, the monetary value of copper is of more consequence."

Llandough deals with non-emergency operations, including orthopaedic and breast surgery.

Ms Williams said the cancellations were "traumatic" for the two breast cancer patients in particular but she said their operations would be rescheduled as quickly as possible.

Health managers are taking steps to provide secondary back-up facilities but these were not in place to allow afternoon operations to take place.

Replacing the cables could cost up to £20,000.

The theft was reported to South Wales Police just after 14.00 GMT on Tuesday.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-16173948
 
Thought I'd drop this here as we don't otherwise have a metal theft thread... I wonder if it's slowed down or if cases just aren't being reported as much?

West Yorkshire post boxes 'stolen for scrap'

At least nine post boxes have been stolen in West Yorkshire, the Royal Mail have said.

The pole or wall-mounted boxes have been taken from several locations in and around Wakefield, including Crofton and Pontefract, since October.

Postal worker Sarah Moreton said the boxes were "just disappearing".

Auctioneer Gary Don said there was little collectors value for the boxes and that they were "almost certainly going for scrap".

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We can confirm that a number of post boxes in the West Yorkshire area were stolen recently.

"We apologise to any customers who have been inconvenienced by these thefts."

West Yorkshire Police have been informed.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-24866384
 
Or maybe I just don't skim the news like I used to (most of it is too depressing).

Here's one of the more surreal efforts in metal theft:

Life-size polar bear skeleton stolen from Wiltshire garden

A life-size bronze sculpture of a polar bear skeleton has been stolen from the front lawn of a house in Wiltshire.

The figure, worth more than £15,000, was taken from a property in West Hatch near Tisbury on Monday night.

Created by local sculptor Mark Coreth, it was part of a campaign to highlight the plight of Arctic polar bears.

PC Matt Price said: "It is often the case that items are stolen to be sold as scrap metal so we need to locate the sculpture quickly."

Life-sized polar bears, carved out of blocks of ice frozen around the bronze impression of a bear's skeleton, were created by the artist in London, Manchester, Copenhagen, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

It was part of a campaign by the World Wildlife Fund to highlight the plight of the polar bears in the Arctic, where melting ice is threatening their survival.

According to the police, the sculpture was not free standing and had been "secured with a metal structure".

"Due to the size and weight of the sculpture we suspect that a low loader with a Hi-Ab would be required to pull the sculpture from its moorings," said PC Price.

"With that in mind, I would like to hear from anyone who saw large vehicles in the area or any suspicious activity."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-23063110
 
Oh dear how terrible.

Railway metal thief Terrence Bullock was electrocuted

A metal thief who touched a 25,000 volt power line was "lifted into the air like a ghost", an inquest has heard.

Terrence Bullock of Canvey Island in Essex died trying to steal cable from the railway at Hadleigh, near Benfleet.

An inquest in Chelmsford heard how the 46-year-old was with accomplice Mark Bradshaw in June 2012 when he died.

Bradshaw told the hearing: "He touched the live wire... his whole body lifted up. His body went limp as soon as he touched it."

Bullock was standing on a box when he cut an overhead wire with bolt-cutters, the inquest heard.

Bradshaw, who was jailed for a year for his role in the failed theft, said: "It sparked everywhere. Terry said, 'get out of here'."

The men ran from the scene but then Bullock decided to return to get the cable, saying he needed the cash.

Bradshaw said he then watched as his friend was electrocuted.

"I knew I couldn't go near him, I panicked and ran."

A narrative verdict that Bullock died of an electric shock at the scene was recorded.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-25447936
 
Ah, so I finally found the story that originally inspired me to start this thread:

A SCRAP metal dealer was electrocuted with 11,000 volts after trying to steal copper from a derelict mill in Morley.

John Roberts, aged 39, then fled from Park Mills before driving to his girlfriend's house in Bramley in a panic where his hair, skin and t-shirt began burning off.

Mr Roberts, of Winrose Avenue, Belle Isle, died in the burns unit at Pinderfields General Hospital 10 days later where he had 37 per cent burns.

A Leeds inquest heard that the voltage was so high the implement used to get at copper wires may have melted completely.

In a police statement read out in court, girlfriend Nina Hurley, of Bramley, told of the horrifying moment she heard Mr Roberts - also known as Bod - screaming in his van outside her home.

"At about 5.10am I heard Bod's van coming along the street. I heard this strange screaming noise. Bod unlocked the front door and screamed 'help me'. He came into the front room, sat in the chair and appeared to hyperventilate. He was shaking and his teeth were chattering. He was panicking.

"His skin was splitting on his hands and lips. His T'shirt had been burnt off. His face was all burnt, the only white was his eyes and teeth. His eye brows and eye lashes were all burnt."

The inquest heard there were prominent safety notices from Yorkshire Electricity warning of the high voltage and danger of death.

These were based around the transformer room within the mill on South Street where there was 11,000 volts buzzing about inside.

The court heard Mr Roberts' injuries were caused by contact with a switch box which would have had an impact similar to putting a "blow torch on the skin".

Police found that equipment had been tampered with and that copper had been systematically stripped.

A leather belt was found on the railings above a wall at the site - probably used by Roberts as he fled.

Assistant deputy coroner Melanie Williamson said: "I am in absolute amazement how Mr Roberts managed to leave the transformer room, climb over the wall and into the car and drive over to Nina Hurley's house."

Ms Hurley called 999 and he was taken to Pinderfields where he later died.

The inquest heard that Mr Roberts had gone to the mill two nights earlier with Jill Dowthwaite who he had been seeing for a month.

They broke off the padlocks and climbed over railed walls in a bid to steal scrap metal.

Through a police statement read out in court, Mrs Dowthwaite told how she could hear a loud buzzing noise.

The pair then left, only for Mr Roberts to return to the spot alone two nights later on August 4, 2007.

He died of multiple organ failure at 2.37am on August 14, 2007.

The coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.
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Yorkshire Evening Pest

They should make a short film of this to show to idiots so that they know what can happen.
 
5,000 Leeds homes left in darkness last year as 5km of power cables stolen

About 5km of power cables was stolen in Leeds last year – making the city one of the worst places in the north for such thefts.

There were 57 attacks on overhead lines and electricity sub-stations in the city – nearly one in 10 of the incidents recorded by power distributor Northern Powergrid, which covers the whole of Yorkshire and the North East.

Nearly 5,000 Leeds homes had their power supply interrupted as a result.

Nigel Walker, who handles metal theft problems for Northern Powergrid, said there was evidence thefts were being co-ordinated by organised gangs – and Leeds was in an extremely vulnerable position because of its location.

He said: “Leeds is a hotspot area. It has a very good motorway network, it’s a central point for criminals to pass through and pinch cable then transport it outside of the region.”

Despite the high number of incidents in Leeds, there were only five arrests relating to cable thefts last year.

Mr Walker said the company had actually seen a reduction in overall crime numbers but metal was being stolen in larger quantities by organised groups.

“A greater amount of metal is being stolen and more customers are being affected,” he said. “I think the attitude of thieves is if they are going to risk their lives, they might as well make it worth it.

“There is evidence it is being put into metal containers and shipped out through the ports, rather than being sold through scrap yards as it has been in the past.”

As well as the danger of electrocution faced by thieves who attack power lines, thefts can cause a fire risk to householders whose power supplies fluctuate.

In 2011 a copper cable theft caused an explosion which wrecked a row of houses in Castleford.
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Yorksire Evening Pest
 
The damage these 'metal men' do in pursuit of their pitiful hauls is astounding.

While our judicial 'system' has been piddling its time and resources away on drug cases, theft has run wild, nobody seems to care how much you may lose, or how difficult to recover from the loss may be to you-it's more important that nobody has a good time.

Truly, I repent me of all the years I served such foolishness.

And if they get cooked, well, so much the better.
 
krakenten said:
The damage these 'metal men' do in pursuit of their pitiful hauls is astounding...

And if they get cooked, well, so much the better.
Click to expand...
Agreed, on both counts. Especially where homes are left without electricity after these thefts, there should be massive fines and/or serious jail time for those caught. They need to understand that it is simply not acceptable to ruin hundreds of people's lives for the sake of a few hundred quid for the scrap. There are too many selfish arseholes around who think nothing of ruining the lives of others for their own ends.
 
There have been gas explosions caused by these idiots taking sections of pipe of fairly minimal value. imo there should be some element of 'reckless endangerment of life' attached to the charges when they get busted.

Assuming the other kind of charge doesn't get them first. :twisted:
 
LordRsmacker said:
It's not sad, they are just thieving scum. There's nothing sad about people being too greedy and lazy to work rather than steal for a living.

The thing is, a trip to a sub-station will present a thief with a Russian Roulette scenario, he can take his pick of several busbars or cable links, but they may not all be live, he's not going to know.
Click to expand...

And people would rather attend to minor crimes,
than the gang of criminals ruling the country.

I would prefer to expose these energy companies
for their greed, than their minor losses in copper theft.

Again, people fail to analyse the causes, and jump
straight into the deep end of judgement.

If people are unable to get a job, what should
they do starve?

No different from the old laws stopping desperate
adults going onto land, to take food for their
children. The king would kill us for doing this.

The king was a hyper criminal invader, taking
this land from the natives in the first place.

And his family rule to this day.
 
fluxed said:
And people would rather attend to minor crimes,
than the gang of criminals ruling the country.

I would prefer to expose these energy companies
for their greed, than their minor losses in copper theft.

Again, people fail to analyse the causes, and jump
straight into the deep end of judgement.

If people are unable to get a job, what should
they do starve?

No different from the old laws stopping desperate
adults going onto land, to take food for their
children. The king would kill us for doing this.

The king was a hyper criminal invader, taking
this land from the natives in the first place.

And his family rule to this day.
Click to expand...
Minor crime? Really? If you suffered a power cut in the middle of February due to one of these morons, you'd possibly not think so.

I'm going to stick my neck out here and suggest that these thieves are not stealing copper cabling because it's their only alternative to starving. They're doing it because they sense a quick buck (far less than the market value of the scrap metal, though, as honest traders won't touch it) and they don't think or care about the hundreds or thousands of people they leave cold and in darkness as a result. The energy companies have to spend serious cash putting the problems right, resulting in higher bills for the non-criminal consumers. Way to stick it to the man, copper-thieves!
 
Well that took long enough, even if I am a bit sceptical about the stats:

Metal thefts have fallen by a third in England and Wales since a new law to tackle the trade in stolen metal came into force, new figures show.

Thefts fell from about 60,000 a year to 40,680 in 2013/14 following the introduction of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).

The law requires dealers to hold a licence to trade, and bans cash payments to mobile scrap collectors.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31561871

is it really falling? Or is the more trivial stuff going unreported when people can't get through to the police on non-emergency numbers? Or simply not being regarded as worthy of being logged? Some idea of the drop in value of theft might be more representative.
 
Disappointing, even if it has gone down by a third (and I share your reservations about the way these things are reported). This is still a massively disruptive and thoughtless crime, and as I suggested in the previous post (a year ago - how time flies!), I can see no possible defence for anyone caught pissing about with the National Grid in this way.
 
Kevin Bachand, 44, was seriously injured Monday morning in what may have been an attempt to steal electrical wire from a Pacific Power pole in the 3700 block of Green River Road.

Sweet Home Police Chief Jeff Lynn said officers responded to a 4:32 a.m. call of a suspicious male walking around the area.

“Our officers located a male with significant, life-threatening burn injuries,” Lynn said. “Our investigation revealed that he had been climbing the power pole in what we believe was an attempt to steal copper wire.”

Bachand was transported to Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital by the Sweet Home Fire & Ambulance District and was then transferred to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland by air ambulance. ...

http://democratherald.com/news/man-...al&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share
 
It is a really thoughtless crime perpetrated by those mainly in search of a quick buck. In the city I used to live in, there was at least a couple of Crimestoppers reports on the nightly news about a car wash that kept having its drain grates stolen for scrap. In that town you can see the scrappers going around all the time with bicycles and wagons or pick up trucks looking for scrap metal. Drug addicts are always breaking into the abandoned houses or buildings and stripping them.
BUT- what if we used these scrappers for good? There's a lot of areas on Earth suffering from urban decay and metal pollution and so on? What if we organized teams of scrappers and paid them a moderate wage to dismantle these abandoned industrial sites and then let them keep the money from the the metal (divvied up among the group)?
 
OneWingedBird said:
They should make a short film of this to show to idiots so that they know what can happen.
Click to expand...

's'funny, I was thinking the same thing, but more of a Panorama-type documentary. Lingering camera shots of blackened cables and scraps of scorched clothing lying on a concrete floor encrusted with greasy ashes. Maybe an eyeball.
 
escargot said:
's'funny, I was thinking the same thing, but more of a Panorama-type documentary. Lingering camera shots of blackened cables and scraps of scorched clothing lying on a concrete floor encrusted with greasy ashes. Maybe an eyeball.
Click to expand...

I was thinking something more like the 70s infomercial that appears at 2:09 in this compilation.


The kids thought getting the frisbee off of the transformer was safer than the other Jimmy in the previous clip. :O
 
Probably for the best that Jimmy didn't make it, that wallpaper would have finished him off.
 
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