Stealing man hole covers

[Anonymous-0]

Just north of Atlanta in Cherokee county thieves have stolen 28 man hole covers in the past 2 weeks, 15 this past Tuesday. Cops said a 110 lb cover brings about $15 for scrap but costs $200 to replace.They are getting them out of subdivisions.
So far no one has been hurt.Crazy.

 

[PaGlenn]

like you and I, scrapyard operators are subject to having their vehicles sucked down into a coverless manhole. Don't you think they would
REFUSE them as scrap at their yards.

 

[TxFarmallFan]

You'd think so, but there making money, so they dont care.

 

[old]

Don't know about where you are but in my area they are cracking down on the scrap yards. Now they have to have titles on any car that come in unless its cut up. Copper they make you sign that its not stolen and man hole covers they call the cops. Scrap prices are down in this area also because of it. Last I heard it was $160 a ton and last month it was $260 a ton
Hobby farm

 

[Nancy Howell]

Here in Dallas, copper thefts got so bad, they passed an ordinance that you have to be a licensed electrician to sell used copper wiring.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Check out the Neenah foundry company, we used these inside new nys correctional facility projects, the one super max I was on had something like 172 manholes, each of which I had the pleasure of climbing into and inspecting. Anything leaving under the fence like storm drainage was 8" dia or less, they just put more pipe in to make up the difference.

Municipalities should spec secure locking type manhole covers, it would slow them down and make em more visible even if they got the tools, though they should be restricted. The problem is though certain people who have to react to problems underground can also be slowed down. I can't believe people resort to this. They do get taken out of service on construction projects, and what is the owner of the legit scrap to do, heck I've got a frame and cover from W22nd st in Manhattan, abandoned electrical manhole, no need for it, so it came home with me, as it would be plenty useful for a septic tank access or similar, or scrap etc.


These and what's even worse is those hand hole covers for your water main laterals over the gate valves for incoming service to a building, they're smaller, easier to get out, and leave a nice leg breaker if yoou don't see it. Street mongers will pick em up and use em as a weapon, talked an angry one out of doing it when I was in my wreckless youth, well not sure what happened or why he turned his sights on three of us, but he did and just pulled one of those up for a weapon, problem was, the other 2 of us would have taken him out, he somehow agreed, good for him actually.
Neenah Foundry Security Bolting

 

[Anonymous-0]

Washington State's new law is anything over $30 can't be paid in cash at the scrapyard -- have to wait 10 days to receive a non-transferable check.

While I'm sure it's a pain for some of the little guys out there who run legitimate handiman type cleanup services, it sounds kind of reasonable to me to cut down on the druggies.

 

[Eric SEI]

Last time I took in pop cans I had to show ID. That was in Hamilton Cty OH.

 

[RodinNS]

They weld the covers down around here.... That's gone on since years. I think since before scrap was worth so much. Some of them just did it for something to do here....
Couple good beads and they don't seem to walk off anymore.

Rod