A few years ago, I was an inventory manager at an electrical contracting shop — we had tens of thousands of dollars <i>just in copper wire</i>.<p>One morning, I arrived to a burglar attempting to steal from our supply house. I performed a citizen's arrest (<i>do not recommend</i>)[1] with some of the other workers, but was the only employee called in to the perpetrator's trialS as I was "the boss" and was the one who bound him physically (multiple wastes of time, the guy "knew how to <i>play</i> the court system").<p>[1] In the future, I will not call the police.
Stealing copper cables from electricity posts is common throughout much of the world. Here's an example[1] robbery. It usually amounts to a gain of a few days' wages for the thief, and a loss of half a day's electricity for the neighborhood.<p>1: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG8Uju1JOkY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG8Uju1JOkY</a>
I was in the HVAC industry throughout the 2000's. Metal thieves generated quite a bit of business for us. Thieves irreparably saw up condenser units to take the heat exchangers (copper tubing + aluminum fins). I can only imagine how much R22 (GWP of 1810) was released into the atmosphere.<p>They'd also target our trucks to get any stored wire, tubing, fittings, or power tools they could get their hands on.
Tangentially related, but I was at my local Home Depot, buying a grounding rod. It seemed like an amazing deal -- 5/8", 8 ft for $19.60. Weighing it, it's 6.6 lbs.<p>Scrap prices according to the web are $3 to $3.30 for that quality of copper. Which means I could potentially be making $2 / rod buying them and selling them to the scrap yard...<p>It makes me wonder if the Home Depot prices are just lagging the market. Maybe I should stock up.