All my copper was stolen last night

[dmm2442]

I just wanted to give you guys a reminder that no matter how safe you think you are to always lock everything up.




Today I walked into my garage and started to take apart faucets. When I had a little pile of copper I went to go throw it in the copper barrel and couldn't find it. I started to look around and didn't see it or my stripped copper wire barrel. Turns out all my copper was missing. Someone climbed through the window that I forgot to lock and got it. I live in a small town and always felt safe and have always locked everything up, but this is one of the few times I've forgotten to lock my window. The only thing else missing were all my pipe wrenches, but my cabinets were all gone threw and a few other things were tipped over. The really bad part was this was two years worth of copper and was going to use it to help pay for a new trailer. Well just a reminder to always lock up your stuff and double check everything.

[CMHN]

Well that really sucks.

I guess being friends with the police helps, I gave my local police the green light to sit in my driveway to set up a speed trap. They are here a couple nights a week.

Sorry to hear about your theft, go to the scrap yards in your area and give them a description of your barrels and approximately what is in them. If anybody new comes in with that kind of scrap they will contact the authorities.

Good luck.

[heeroyue2002]

that happend to me plenty of times. my yard was cluttered with truck parts of the year i work on. ( a couple trucks worth)
my garage was stacked with boxes and boxes of parts and tools. went in to get a part one day and all the box;s are empty and the yard looked quite empty. we actually caught a guy in the yard. he saw us and jumped the fence and darted away.

[EcoSafe]

yup sry that sucks happened to me a couple of monts ago 50 lb of #1 worth about $150, but we did our own detective work and caugh the guy. we handled "in House" so to speak. misteriously that tweeker moved away a day or two later. I may be an ol dude but Im a tough old dude and I have 2 boys one 18 one 20, and we are all old school hard core about things like that.

[IdahoScrapper]

Sorry to hear about that. Very few things I hate more than a thief. Haven't had any scrap stolen (that I know of). I run a few sno cone stands during the summer and store the buildings offsite. Someone came along and cut the power cables off one of the buildings. Was pretty thick cable. Judging by how jagged the cut was, I have to wonder if they had a cordless sawzall.

Hope the offender(s) are caught. I imagine prints were left since they had to leave out a door? Or did they leave back out the window?

[dmm2442]

Its sad to see that it happen to you guys also.

They left out the door. I bet their prints would also be on the window. They also handled some buckets to dump them into a larger barrel. I will be having the police come tomorrow to check it out. I would have called them today, but I didn't want to deal with the person who was on duty. I bet these guys don't even have the slightest clue on how much time scrappers put into cutting up faucets and stripping wire. The only ray of hope is that one of the barrels taken was a very rare and easy to detect barrel. I will be calling the yards around here maybe they are dumb enough to use the same one. I also know all the trash haulers and will give them the description of the barrels taken in case they throw them out.

Does anybody have any other ideas of how they secure their buildings?

[EcoSafe]

how many places near to you can they sell it to, that is where we started, then we went to the independent neighborhood buyers. took us about 3 hours to figgure out who got it.

The profile is usually 16 to 25 pot heads or tweekers. but some one who stole that much is most likely pro or semi pro. maybe a out of work plumbers helper.

dont know how small your town is but after the buyers, you may start on plumbers and find out what ner do wells have been layed off lately.

[dmm2442]

There are three scrap yards in the area. I will be calling them on monday.

[PartTimeScrapper]

My garage is secured by dog. I have a doggie door that goes from my house into my garage. You break into my garage you have a 120 pound great dane eating your face. She doesnt have to eat your butt because she can stand on her hind legs with paws on my shoulder and look you square in the eye. Im 6 foot 2. She is used to keep you there till i get there with my AK47 and give you lead poisoning.

[skylinejack]

You can't beat a good guard dog! I got two of em!

[IdahoScrapper]

We used to have a Siberian Husky. A mean looking dog, but sad fact is she would have helped the thieves carry stuff off if she could.

As for how to better secure your building. I don't know what you have now.

For me, I have an attached garage. From the outside it looks like a typical home, although for awhile my activity was wide open. I am more hidden now and don't leave stuff out. I do break downs in garage or back yard. The front of garage has a side door with a window. I plan to cover it, but then wondered if that would draw attention?

Also have a fair sized window on side of garage. Can't see anything unless you come clear up to the house and then some. Still, I prefer that no one be able to see. Again thinking about covering it. Even had the thought of installing a rebar grate.

I can reinforce the window with grates. Weak point would still be the door. I suppose I could put a solid door with a heavy dead bolt and beef up the jamb. Dad did that on his last garage that was broken into.

EDIT
*Scratch the idea about having alarm stickers.*


Maybe wire all the openings with an alarm?

I am not a thief so I can't think of every last thing that would be a deterrent.

For those that have dogs, did you have to train them to ward off strangers? Like I was saying, the one we had would help thieves if given the chance.

[ScrapperNJ26]

Hook up a torch to the door like in Home Alone.

[Dru702]

Any of you guys ever hear of garage shopping/hopping or car shopping/hopping? Its when someone walks around usually around 1 am - 4am and just looks for garages or cars that have been left open or unlocked. Usually teenagers looking for some quick beer or drug money do it. Sounds like this is what happened to you and I am sorry to hear it. Best way to stop this is to make sure to always lock up everything. I have a Tonneau Cover on my truck and I always lock it, if I have taken the cover off to load scrap I will park inside my garage and make sure its locked. I also have a guard dog, a german shepherd the best guard dog IMO, very easy to train. Also I have signs posted on my garage and around my house that say "smile your on camera", there is no real camera just a fake one that has a blinking red light and I painted it all black so it looks real. I am planing to install a real one soon. If the thief was smart he would of worn gloves so no fingerprints would be left behind,, if I was you i'd try to find a picture of what was stolen and send it to all the scrap yards near by also check your local craigslist ads the thief might try to sell it on there instead of a scrap yard b/c it would be safer for him. Hope this helps and good luck trying to catch the lowlife who did this.

[GeorgeB]

Hook up a torch to the door like in Home Alone.

That will definitely teach them!

[drozenski]

You can secure your garage in many ways.

1: Purchase a 9.99 fake video camera. At least make them think twice
2: Put up motion activated lights outside and in the garage.
3: Alarm system on the doors and windows.
4: Get a real video system and place the recorder in your home.

But always remember no system is fool proof. Also booby traps and such can get you into more trouble than the theif will be in. Make sure you know your local laws prior to attempting to secure your property with them. In most states they are illegal.

[Dru702]

You can secure your garage in many ways.

1: Purchase a 9.99 fake video camera. At least make them think twice
2: Put up motion activated lights outside and in the garage.
3: Alarm system on the doors and windows.
4: Get a real video system and place the recorder in your home.

But always remember no system is fool proof. Also booby traps and such can get you into more trouble than the theif will be in. Make sure you know your local laws prior to attempting to secure your property with them. In most states they are illegal.

I agree with 1 and 4, somewhat agree with 3, but not with 2. 2 will only stop thieves who have very little experience, most houses where I live have lights that automatically come on when someone gets close and experienced thieves will know this and not be deterred in the slightest by lights coming on. Al tho the lights will make for clearer video images. Something better would be to have light that would go on inside the house or leave a tv on where a would be thief would be able to see it though a window, most thieves who garage hop will check to see if any lights are on inside the house and if there are they will simply move on to the next house. 3 depending on the kind of alarm system this will only stop inexperienced thieves. NEVER PUT UP A SIGN THAT TELLS THE THIEF WHAT KIND OF ALARM SYSTEM YOU HAVE IF YOU DO A SMART THIEF WILL KNOW IMMEDIATELY IF YOUR ALARM SYSTEM IS EASY TO DISARM OR NOT. Most cheap systems use a closed circuit, when the door or window is closed it completes the circuit, if the circuit is broken then the alarm sounds. This is the easiest kind of alarm to disarm all a thief would need to do is get a small piece of wire find the circuit and attach the wire so now when the thief opens the window or door the circuit remains intact and no alarm sounds. Alarms will work but they are not the kind of thing you want to be cheap about when buying. Also smart thieves will cut your outgoing phone line if they know you have an alarm so the alarm can not contact the police or connect to a call center.

[TheHoss]

My old man and i have a reputation in our neighborhood for bein' the kinda folk that dont take too kindly to strangers. I had a small copper pipe lifted out of the back of my truck last night, and today, the fella brought it back to me. I gave him $5 for bringing it back, and made a friend. He told me he did it because he's an alcoholic, and was goin' to sell it monday for a beer or whatever. I gave him $5, because he was HUMAN enough to bring it back too me, and maybe me doin that will make him not take anything else.

We got a sign on our window by the front door that says "We dont want your religion or magazines. Go away. RUN FAST NOW." Have a "no trespassing" sign by our american flag. We give people enough warning to stay the flock out. If we ever catch anybody doing anything stupid, they get what they deserve.

I dont have no fancy lights or alarms. Just a baseball bat and shotgun by the front door. That's how we do it in the country.

[jham1217]

Dang man, I'm sorry to hear about all that happening to you. I'd be super po'd about all that. I have access to alarm system that are pretty cool that you can control from a cell phone. Turns lights on and everything even inside the house. I have a friend of mine that is a rep for them so if anyone wants any info on it let me know and I can get you some more info. Not trying to spam just thought it might help.

[High Voltage Processing]

Its sad to see that it happen to you guys also.

They left out the door. I bet their prints would also be on the window. They also handled some buckets to dump them into a larger barrel. I will be having the police come tomorrow to check it out. I would have called them today, but I didn't want to deal with the person who was on duty. I bet these guys don't even have the slightest clue on how much time scrappers put into cutting up faucets and stripping wire. The only ray of hope is that one of the barrels taken was a very rare and easy to detect barrel. I will be calling the yards around here maybe they are dumb enough to use the same one. I also know all the trash haulers and will give them the description of the barrels taken in case they throw them out.

Does anybody have any other ideas of how they secure their buildings?

I have alarm systems, nightvision cameras recording to an offsite location and a big ass dog.

[Torker Man]

Was it dumb luck? or did they know you process scrap there??

Be careful who you tell!!

hats why when I sell an item thatit "pick up" on ebay, I drive 10 mins down the road and meet them, I use the excuse that

"everyone ggets lost finding my place, so I'll meet you at XYZ.."
Has worked so far.