Whenever I mention scrapping metal to people, the 'all talk & no actions' start going on about 'people stealing copper planter boxs & hotwater cylinders'.
Now these are the storys I read about in the newspapers.
Ok, they ARE true but whats happening is people talk when they get drunk in a pub & the same conversations get recycled over & over again.
In fact, I can see the discrepancy's popup & now know where they got the info. I don't bother to correct them now, knowing that 'too much info in a idiot' is worse than 'a idiot who knows nothing'.
Like the idiot who said to me "Those motors weigh 5kg & coppers worth $6 a Kg, so thats worth $30"
In fact, its 1Kg of Copper & 4 Kg of iron, = $6. IF the coppers stripped off it, which takes 20minutes....
And "The computer chips are worth their weight in Gold"
The only thing worth its weight in gold, is, GOLD! & they don't make computer chips out of gold.....
A good hint for dealing with the Police is, find something, something else, something valuable, & take it into the Police station & file a 'Found property report'.
Even better if theres details that will get them back to the owner. Tell them you were scrapping metal & found this...
If the owner isn't found, you get to keep it anyway.
I have been stopped several times & details checked, sweet, I'm doing nothing illegal, I explain what I'm doing & tell them I'm carrying a cellphone & if I ever see anything dubious I can call them too.
Some are quite interested & ask questions to get accurate info about the market.
In one spot they found me in and during the talk I mentioned that when I started there were other people doing the same thing as me, but making a mess.
By coincidence there were some heavy machinery in the area & some of it had been vandalized & parts stolen, batterys & alternators etc.
I was able to tell them what was happening, the batterys & alternators were being stolen by people wanting to generate their own power.
Because they were 24V DC they didn't have to spend as much $ to buy a invertor to shift it up to 240V AC.....
"Ah ha!" they go. Now they know why it was happening so often. That info gets around the Police pretty quickly, helps them heaps.
The other thing.. It never happened again once I had started scrapping in that area, I knew my start date & we quickly relised that my presence was deterring thief's.
After that, passing Police give me a toot on the horn, one dropped in hoping to get a special electrical part & others just stop for a yarn. This is at 3am.....
Some stop to check about a report, screaming girls is one thing, fast cars on the run is another, explosions once, coulda been a gunshot or a backfring car. Rules out gunshot, describes car.
Other times I guess nothings happening & they want something to go on their worksheet..
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