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Putting the Squeeze On Broadband Copper Robbers
nk497 writes "As the price of copper rises, thieves have taken to stealing broadband cables, taking out internet connections and slowing down the rollout of super-fast broadband by giving engineers more work to do. To battle the criminals, UK provider BT has 21 investigators on staff to track down thieves and has started using SmartWater bombs that spray stolen property and the criminals. The SmartWater liquid carries a DNA fingerprint that links a criminal to the scene of the crime and police units carrying ultra-violet light detectors can use the incriminating stains to make an arrest after the trap has been sprung. 'We had one case recently where someone in Dagenham was stopped and searched after acting suspiciously and the police used a UV light on them and could show that they had been tampering with the equipment,' said Auguste. The SmartWater liquid can also be pasted inside cables, making them easier to trace — and less appealing to scrap metal buyers, helping to cut demand for stolen copper."
Perhaps move to fiber should be considered
Scrap metal recyclers don't pay much for fiber optics, just saying.
There are two types of theft: stealing for necessity (food, medicine and such) and stealing for pleasure.
The guy who steals because he's starving is not even remotely the same as the guy who steals something which he doesn't need to survive.
There was a time when the latter were regarded without any mercy and rightly as the scum that they are. You could use force, even deadly force when necessary, in defense of property that no one needs to meet basic human needs.
Guess what? People pulled this shit a lot less often back then.
The irony of the accusation that letting people use serious force to defend their property is a form of barbarism is that the unlawful taking of property, especially when it damages entire parts of the community, is a real form of barbarism. Basic crime is a rejection of civil society.
Maybe if we had a lower income-gap, better paying jobs, and opportunity for people this wouldn't be such a problem?
Alternatively we could legalize recycling of the broadband cables. A slogan: "Let's put it to a better use!"
Remember prohibition never worked in any war on anything. I am not an expert, but does anyone know any medicinal use of the broadband copper?
Of course that all depends on how broad is contraband of the broadband copper.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
The delay also lets the power and telco companies come around and retrieve their stolen goods before they get shipped off or melted down.
By the time stolen wiring gets to a scrap dealer it is generally in no state to be used for its original purpose. The only way it'd be worth retrieving is if it was wire/cable still on the original spool with undamaged insulation. And any scrap dealer that would even think of buying that knows damn well that they are buying stolen materials. Ditto when some twitchy methhead shows up with hundreds of pounds of copper wiring that got "burned up in a fire" or a similar amount of nice shiny household copper pipe.
I think what the parent's point is that many of these folks are doing this to make a living. When one has their backs against the wall, they do desperate things.
This is the typical bleeding heart argument. And poor drug dealers, they're just trying to make a living too.
You realize that a morally sound person will refuse to engage in this type of activity on principle, no matter how hard up they are? These people are the scum of the earth, their parents should never have had children because certainly they had no idea how to raise them. These opportunists are out to make a quick buck because they think the world owes them something, and they have no interest (or are probably amused by) the damage they cause to society. I'm just sad that because of bleeding heart like you we're not allowed to shoot them.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
The war on theft is one of those basic prohibitions that's been around since the dawn of civilization. When I leave for work in the AM, this prohibition helps to make sure my shit is still in my house when I get home. It's one of the lubricants for a smooth running society, and legalizing theft (as you seem to be advocating) is a monumentally Bad Idea.
In Saudi Arabia a man would have his right hand amputated if caught stealing.
Do you think having both arms and legs amputated is a more just punishment?
I don't believe that the parent said anything about not *blaming* the perpetrators for the crime. But punishment, in and of itself, is rarely a solution to anything- witness the perpetual failure that is the war on drugs.
It's perfectly reasonable to suggest that we investigate and attempt to fix the causes of crimes, *in addition* the punishing those caught perpetrating them.
The world is not black and white. Your "you must be a bleeding heart who's causing all our problems by not letting us shoot petty criminals" attitude is not a solution, it's part of the problem.
The ringing of the division bell has begun... -PF
There are actually quite a few morally questionable actions that are ignored everyday, performed by employees of corporations. Just because you have a legal job, doesn't mean you aren't screwing somebody over directly or part of a corporation that does it.
Not that this excuses thieves in general. Bad behavior is bad behavior.
what they do here for pawnshops. Put a four week hold on all payments.
That sucks. Half the point of a pawn shop is "oh shit, I have to pay rent in 2 days but don't get paid for 4!" A short term loan where you get to choose your collateral (and which, if you default on, they're not going to come after your house or whatever).
No trespassing. Violators will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
So you can look at your justice system as having three goals, in order:
1) Deterrence. The first and foremost goal is to have consequences so that people simply don't do shit they aren't supposed to. You try to deter as many people as possible by saying "If you do this, we punish you," and hopefully people say "Well I don't wanna be punished, I'm not going to do that." When that doesn't work you move on to:
2) Rehabilitation. You make good on the threat, you punish them. You try and make it so that, having experienced the punishment, they aren't interested in it happening again. Also, and this is something our prisons are NOT good at, you try to help give them options when they get out. Basically it is a case of "Ok you fucked up and now you pay the consequences. We don't ever want to see you back, and we hope that you don't want to come back." However if that doesn't work you go of:
3) Removal. If someone just keeps causing problems, you don't have a lot of other choices. I mean I suppose you could let them just keep committing crimes but that really isn't an option, and kinda makes a mockery of the idea of a justice system. So you just lock them up. When they are in prison, they can't be out committing crimes. May well mean they spend most of their life there, that just may be what is needed.
Well #3 is the point you get to with some people. It isn't a matter of hard sentences for the sake of being a hardass, it is because you've had enough of the shit. They won't learn their lesson, it is time to just keep them out of trouble. You can't do anything else because they are too stupid, or they have an addiction and aren't willing to fight it (you can't force cure an addict, they have to choose to fight it and only then can you help them).
Now I'm not saying our system as-is is perfect, but that is where part of it comes from. Perhaps what we need is something not as harsh as prison, a work camp like system where you go if you are a massive repeat offender, but not for serious things. You continually steal, nothing helps, fine now your sentences start to be long stretches in a structured environment where you are kept out of trouble. Not because we hate you, just because we need you to stop causing problems for other people.
It depends on what country you are in but for some false arrest can cost 1000's. Couple this with the fact that many different stores even libraries use the same kinds of tag and the detectors cannot tell the difference.
The detectors going off are not detecting a theft but usually just the presence of a tag quite possibly a tag from a completely different store.
So for store security the detectors are mostly a waste of time, its security theatre and it is up to the individual to cooperate with it or not. It is a big mistake for a security guard or staff member to stop someone on the basis of the detector because of the false positives.
However often store security is independent of the store a description of the individual may be passed on the radio to other guards and store detectives in other stores in the vicinity. Most shop lifters do not restrict themselves to one store and will visit several in a day and fore warned the security will be paying extra attention in the next store and maybe this time catch them in the act and be 100% sure when they go after the thief they are guilty they saw goods being taken and they were not ditched before the thief left the store.
Actually when it comes down to it a lot of the security work is keeping an eye on known thieves and making it difficult for them to steal something by being around while the thief is in the store. Too be quite frank catching people stealing is a joke. I remember one case of a thief who was using a bag specially lined with foil to hide the tag signal who took 600 worth of designer jeans was stopped arrested and in the end ordered to pay 20 in compensation to the store.
Making an arrest can be dangerous in itself as thieves can be armed or lash out, I remember one arrest where one of the guards came back into the store after being kicked in the family jewels. I imagine in other countries it can be worse.
It does vary a lot by country in Poland I have seen stores where you routinely check in your bags go through the tills and then the security guard goes through your bag checking off your purchases against your receipt.
Really what it comes down to is deterring the thieves and making them go elsewhere.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
It is too easy. In Arizona most people have their electric panel outside the house. That means by opening the panel you gain access to pounds of copper - you just have to pull real hard.
Similarly, neighborhoods have park land with lights. The wiring connecting these to power to extremely vulnerable and has been stolen in a number of locations. Of course, nobody is talking about this because they don't want to encourage people.
The problem is going to get worse. When you have bands of people that have little to lose, why not try to steal some wires. The scrap metal dealers are sufficiently isolated from the criminal acts that they really don't care where the wire came from, especially if it isn't obviously a spool of cable that might have been stolen. So you can fill up a pickup truck with wire scraps and make $100 or more.
Any construction site is fair game. Any park with lights is a target. Homes that aren't in some gated subdivision are pretty easy as well. Parks near my house have been victimized, one has been hit twice. And this is going to generally be considered to be a victimless crime - nobody got hurt and whatever was destroyed was probably insured.
Even if they put up enough dummy cameras and a few live ones to make people think twice about this, there are plenty of sources. How much copper do you think is in the average car?