leaving scrap in your truckbed

more a of a question for those pickup truck scrappers....

lots of people in my neighborhood leave scrap in the back of their trucks, parked curbside in front of their houses. no one messes with it. some are even parked on the corners away from houses so people can dropoff stuff in them...

Im just asking cuase it seems like the scrap buisness gets much much shadier in other places

if you were to leave things like that in your truck, would it still be there in the morning?


*thought that i would mention i live in one of san joses suburbs about 5miles downtown... still inside the city, ie houses surrounded by stripmalls along the main streets

*hey mods, should this be moved to "misc metal recycling" forum?

I leave scrap in mine all the time, then again, I live in the country and it's pretty safe out here.

I live in the suburbs of Las Vegas and I never leave my truck out with scrap in it. Smart thieves will target upper middle class neighborhoods because they know people who live their have a false scene of security and don't usually take precautions to prevent theft. I have had my truck broken into once, luckily there was nothing in it at the time and also several of my neighbors houses have been broken into. The house right next to me almost had all the appliances stolen out of it, but I saw the guys and called the cops, the thieves sere smart and ditched everything and bailed but the family who was trying to sell the house had to pay a handyman to re install everything. If you have any vacant houses for sale in your neighborhood I would be careful thieves target these houses too for obvious reasons.

In my experience, I've found that people tend to not bother collections of iron as it's usually difficult to steal without noticing, and the returns for the risk aren't that great. That being said, I would not leave any metals with real value out and accessible. I'm talking about items like copper and catalytic converters, which are almost guaranteed to disappear, and also things like aluminum rims and batteries. I run a small metal recycling facility and have known many people personally who have had these types of items stolen from them. With metal prices up and the economy down, I hear more and more of these stories every day. To summarize: light iron/steel SHOULD be okay to leave on a pickup, anything more valuable be aware that you are taking a risk.

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Originally Posted by Err0rX

I've found that people tend to not bother collections of iron as it's usually difficult to steal without noticing, and the returns for the risk aren't that great.

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Unless their a tweaker, a tweaker will see a water heater or other big piece of metal as nothing more than their next fix. And it wouldn't be that difficult to steal he'd go get his tweaker friend pull his truck right up along side yours hop out grap as many big pieces of iron as they could and drive off. It would take less than 30 seconds. That being said I live in Vegas there are many tweakers here and this kind of stuff happens far to often. A couple months ago thieves stole over 3 TONS of rebarb and some copper from a highway construction site in less than a week. Last week my friend has some steel rims stolen out of his garage the thief probably only got 5 or 10 bucks for them but that's enough to buy a hit or two of meth.

Even though there is literally HUNDREDS more scrappers now, from when I started, the ones in my neighborhood are actually pretty cool. No one messes with one another.

Not to say I would leave all my copper, brass, wire, motors, etc in my truck, because I never do at the end of the day, but still.

Yes I leave scrap in my truck bed all the time. But only steel/shred. Anything else comes inside, broken down and stored until ready for selling. At my parents, I have left fridges and other appliances on the driveway over night...Occasionally I would have scrappers ask if I wanted to have it removed.

I live in apartments, too expensive for me, and everyone here considers me a sort of "dirty bum" for taking their garbage, but that's okay. $$

I live in a rural area, I have a large driveway and don't have to worry about parking on the street. I will keep my scrap in my trailer all the time, but I try to keep my truck empty for fuel economy and room for the unexpected scrap pickup.

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Originally Posted by bluemeate

more a of a question for those pickup truck scrappers....

lots of people in my neighborhood leave scrap in the back of their trucks, parked curbside in front of their houses. no one messes with it. some are even parked on the corners away from houses so people can dropoff stuff in them...

Im just asking cuase it seems like the scrap buisness gets much much shadier in other places

if you were to leave things like that in your truck, would it still be there in the morning?


*thought that i would mention i live in one of san joses suburbs about 5miles downtown... still inside the city, ie houses surrounded by stripmalls along the main streets

*hey mods, should this be moved to "misc metal recycling" forum?

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Probably one of the dumbest things you could do. All that work for someone else to profit? The cops won't care if you file a police report. When the police come to my yard, they state what they are there for, everybody knows it's pointless, and the cops ends up eating all of our donuts.

I truly feel sorry for you that live in the city, and out west in general.

leaving non ferris metal open to the street is like leaving candy on the coffee table. the dogs will sooner or later get it. and may use your truck to haul it away.
times are not getting better, and desperate people do desperate things.

Only thing I will leave in my truck, under the carport is steel. Don't want to unload it just to have to put it all back in to take to the yard!

Leaving scrap in the bed of your truck is like asking Colonel Sanders to babysit your chickens! http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2.../jokes/159.jpg

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Originally Posted by Dru702

Unless their a tweaker, a tweaker will see a water heater or other big piece of metal as nothing more than their next fix. And it wouldn't be that difficult to steal he'd go get his tweaker friend pull his truck right up along side yours hop out grap as many big pieces of iron as they could and drive off. It would take less than 30 seconds. That being said I live in Vegas there are many tweakers here and this kind of stuff happens far to often. A couple months ago thieves stole over 3 TONS of rebarb and some copper from a highway construction site in less than a week. Last week my friend has some steel rims stolen out of his garage the thief probably only got 5 or 10 bucks for them but that's enough to buy a hit or two of meth.

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I live in a more rural area, so there isn't as much of problem with that here. There are still some tweakers, though. Hell, last week someone got arrested for trying to steal a guard rail off the side of the road. I wasn't trying to say it wouldn't happen, I was just saying it was less likely than if he had the back of his truck full of copper.

I left my car in someones elses driveway, a block away, for a month & when I went to get it, the radiator was missing...

I'd looked under the bonnet before driving it home & thought to myself, 'Theres a lot of extra space under here, dunno why...'
It was when I stopped & noticed the wee drift of steam coming from under the hood that I relised something was wrong..

Another car in the area, that was just left in the corner of a vacant lot had its radiator stolen too.

Peeved me off a little, it was the 'start of the end' of that car for me, it sat for too long & got rusted out, then I scrapped it down & someone stole/took that hulk as well......

(They were supposed to give me & my other nonferrous scrapmetal a lift to the scrappers, but decided to just take the car without telling me.)
(I think they thought my nonferrous scrapmetal was stored in the car, it wasn't)
I don't 'deal' with Maoris in any way shape or form because of that, now.

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Originally Posted by Err0rX

I live in a more rural area, so there isn't as much of problem with that here. There are still some tweakers, though. Hell, last week someone got arrested for trying to steal a guard rail off the side of the road. I wasn't trying to say it wouldn't happen, I was just saying it was less likely than if he had the back of his truck full of copper.

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Yeah if you live out in the country you will probably be ok. Here in Vegas we have a whole population of tweakers who live underground. Then there's the naked city that's where people go to get ANY kind of drug.

I wish I had chickens.

Wouldn't leave pennies in my vehicle let alone any metal of value around here. Truck load of steel would be fine tho, no crack head is gonna try and grab hundreds of pounds of crap to get a couple bucks. But copper woud be gone in a second.