UK... Scrapyards closed, As Police make dawn raids!

Scrap metal raids: Police seize 14 tonnes of rail cable.
Operation Ferrous
Police in London, made 45 arrests yesterday after closing down Scrapyards across the capital.

This is an ongoing operation, with raids in NE England also!

Quote:

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The day of action aimed to tackle the "growing" crime of metal theft, thought to cost the economy £700m a year.
Scotland Yard is launching a dedicated unit to target the thieves.

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They are stating that most of the cable is from Railway.
Read more here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16307310

Thanks for the post. I think its amatter time until we see no cash in the economy for any thing not just the recycling industry.

It should have been called operation non-ferrous. But I guess that's the way the UK police roll.

I'm sure there will be calls for more laws and tougher regulations. The law abiding citizens and companies will find it more difficult and expensive to do business and the theives will carry on. Mike

As some of you know, i drive trains in the UK as my main job.

It is getting ridiculous at how many times a week, thieves are stealing the cable on our railways.

A couple of weeks ago, i was driving between Sheffield and Leeds at 100mph when suddenly, all the signals go out!
There are built in safety devices on all our trains now so that if i pass a signal at red, the brakes come on and stop the train.
When the signals go out, the safety system treats this as though they are at red. My train screeches to a halt and now i'm going nowhere.

Up in the distance, i can see a van or truck driving at speed, on the track, coming towards me!
It stops and i can see about 4 guys jump out, they are busy at the back of the truck for about 5 mins, jump back in and drive off the track and
onto a side road. Truck then disappears out of sight.

Turns out, the thieves had cut the cable and then tied one end of it onto the back of the truck. It then drove about a mile and a half down the track, pulling
the cable out of its concrete trough. They then gathered all the cable into the back of the truck and scarpered!

I was sat there for 2 1/2 hours until the signals got fixed!!
The railway has said for years that going after the thieves is pointless, it's the yards that buy the stolen cable that should be targeted.
If the thieves can't sell it, they won't nick it!
Looks like they might be finally agreeing with us.

You guys over there should just add a few extra wires in that cable with 20k volts going through it. After a few thieves get turned into BBQ others will learn.