Thieves take part collection for scrap metal

[oldcarnut]

I know there has been a few posts about the cat conv. a/c, elec wiring, and similar but i thought I'd pass along some info. so that some others may take some safeguards.  I have a friend that has been collecting and saving Mopar parts and cars for many many years on his own private land.  Has several acres of cars some good but most in disrepair and his shop and inside storage area is like a museum and memorabilia display.  He usually keeps his area private and mostly won't sell the parts stuff but just likes to keep it and show on display to people now and then like from our car club.  Occasionally he'll sell a car but just not a piece off it.  Anyway he had a lot of radiators lined up (some of them very old, hard to get, and $$$) along with alum rims (GL's, slots etc.) and other alum, stainless trimmings, hubcaps etc.  You get the picture.  Someone came by on different occasions and stole all of it.  He thought it was someone that might be stealing for car stuff resale but the only things they were taking were those metals paying off high rates at the scrapyard.  At least it would have shown back up somewhere on someones car but now its in a melting pot to be lost forever.  It's getting bad when you can't keep metal stuff in your own yard anymore for people stealing it to turn it into Chinese material.  Use to be I'd have beg for help to clean out the garage, now I have to file a police report because someone is stealing the junk out of it     The metal scrap yards have been popping up and booming with business. They don't even ask for titles to the cars.  Even the dang auto salvage yards that are complaining about thefts are the same ones buying from the thieves.  Next door neighbor had his car lifted and cat conv.. stolen a couple weeks back in a parking lot somewhere.  Looked like they left forklift mast marks in the side of the car from whatever they lifted with.  If you have auto parts or other metals laying around you want to keep, they're not safe anymore.  Lock em up if ya want em. David

[Todd Wilson]

I had a big aluminum base grow legs and walk off a few years ago. It was heavy enough that it was all I wanted to lift into the back of a pickup truck. I was collecting parts to put up a railroad signal in my backyard for decoration and that base was the last piece I needed and it vanished.

The railroad had 4 flatbed semi trucks sitting across town with track panels on them. Went to move then the other day and found that someone had taken all the wiring for the trailer lights off each trailer.

Todd

[Old Moparz]

One of the local scrap yards has been running an ad in the paper over the last month or so, buying catalytic converters for $175 each. It's not a 5 line, classified ad for $75, it's a small 3" advertisement that has to be a couple hundred bucks. Abandoned buildings, as well as new ones that aren't completed yet, are having the pipes & wiring stolen out of them. Crackheads & scumbags are making a killing now.

I have the old 7-1/4" rear from my Scamp on a pallet near my garage. I still have to remove a few brackets from it, so I better do it fast or chain it to a tree before I come home & it's gone.   

[jdiesel33]

On a related note, I am extremely paranoid about things like that. The 68 that I am fixing right now is in my driveway. I never go to bed or leave the house without making sure another vehicle is parked behind it. It doesnt run right now, but that wouldnt stop someone from hooking it up to a wrecker pretty quickly and taking it away!!! As we all know, these old MOPAR's are valuable and in demand. I dont want to take any chances.

[Chargerguy74]

I would offer the theives a surplus of copper and lead. And I would even load it into their truck for free!!!

[BigBlockSam]

that sucks . i live in the inner city . so space is tight . i have security camera's and motion alarms and twice i've caught people in the yard . ya gotta be careful if you wanna keep all your stuff. it might look like junk to others  but it's gold to us. Rrene

[1969chargerrtse]

On a related note, I am extremely paranoid about things like that. The 68 that I am fixing right now is in my driveway. I never go to bed or leave the house without making sure another vehicle is parked behind it. It doesn't run right now, but that wouldn't stop someone from hooking it up to a wrecker pretty quickly and taking it away!!! As we all know, these old MOPAR's are valuable and in demand. I don't want to take any chances.

Many years ago I pulled an engine from a car, I was towing it somewhere and had a chain issue.  I left it on the side of a main road and wrote on a large piece of paper "  engine problems, be back soon"  It was a joke as the front was up high as the engine was not there.   I was gone 15 mins, I come back to get it, and it was gone!!   

[Old Moparz]

On a related note, I am extremely paranoid about things like that. The 68 that I am fixing right now is in my driveway. I never go to bed or leave the house without making sure another vehicle is parked behind it. It doesnt run right now, but that wouldnt stop someone from hooking it up to a wrecker pretty quickly and taking it away!!! As we all know, these old MOPAR's are valuable and in demand. I dont want to take any chances.

Just wondering, do you have insurance on it? Are you aware that the collector car insurance companies will still cover the car if it's in a project state? (Mine does, Condon & Skelly)

[jdiesel33]

I actually have that on my list of to do's. I certainly do appreciate the suggestion though. I should have already had it done.

[LaOtto70Charger]

Completely opposite in my neck of the woods.  I left a couch with a hideaway bed out by the curb for a week with a for free sign and know one touched it.  There had to be a over 80 lbs of metal in it. 

[dpm68]

I would offer the theives a surplus of copper and lead. And I would even load in into their truck for free!!!

I was working on my Galaxie 500 ('64) and I laid the (read very rare) factory air compressor in the driveway, went in to use the bathroom, came back out, and...well you know...bastards. And what really sucks is there are a ton of bums in our hood, and Atlas Scrapyards is three blocks away. Not a good combo.

[bear]

I would offer the theives a surplus of copper and lead. And I would even load it into their truck for free!!!

I would gladly take that off your hands but I have a feeling that you are nowhere near me. Anyways I have been hauling scrap to the yard for about 8 months and in that time steel has gone from 6 cents a pound up to 10 cents a pound and all the other metals have gone up quite a bit since I have started. Honestly it is not bad at all considering the fact that I have made $1300 off of it and I have turned in 12,000 of metals total and it took about maybe 10-15 hours worth of time and that includes taking it to the yard. The only time that I would take something off of somebody's lawn was if it was out in that trash or there was a free sign on it but I haven't had to do it that much since I get some much of it from where I work and I have gotten a lot of stuff from there including some semi trailer axles.

The day I hauled this and another one to the yard was one of me most profitable days I have had.

[Drache]

I would offer the theives a surplus of copper and lead. And I would even load it into their truck for free!!!

I would gladly take that off your hands but I have a feeling that you are nowhere near me.

Im pretty sure Chargerguy was talking about buckshot and not scrap metal 

[Chatt69chgr]

SOB's in Chattanooga were stealing grates and manhole covers last week or two.  Apparently, TN just passed a law that junkyards can't purchase things like manhole covers, road signs, etc. 

I work for Tennessee Valley Authority and they have been coming into our substations and microwave sites and cutting all the copper grounds off the equipment.  One of these days, one of them will get fried doing that.

I don't think we have seen the worst of all of this.  I expect to start seeing the dishpan boys poking holes in automotive and truck gas tanks and stealing the gas just like on the Mad Max movies.  I also heard that they are starting to steal license plates to switch onto vehicles just to drive through and steal a tank of gas.  Then they throw the plate away.  Naturally, the gas station comes after the plates owner cause that's what shows up on the security camera. 

[bear]

I would offer the theives a surplus of copper and lead. And I would even load it into their truck for free!!!

I would gladly take that off your hands but I have a feeling that you are nowhere near me.

Im pretty sure Chargerguy was talking about buckshot and not scrap metal 

But he said it was FREE.

[terrible one]

Every time I'm lugging around some slot mags I always think of how well they would do at the scrapyard.

[Drache]

my uncle works with BC Hydro and the two biggest things that get stolen are:

1. The power lines! People climb the poles and snip the live cables on deserted streets!

2. Copper Mesh! Underneath those power stations every now and then along highways or other roads is a giant mesh of copper wire! This wire keeps the electricity out of the ground! (My uncle and I were once checking a power station for damages and he told me to touch a flower growing out of the ground. When I did I received a shock!) Anyways people will dig up this wire mess (usually buried under gravel) and take as much as they can!

[TruckDriver]

Every time I'm lugging around some slot mags I always think of how well they would do at the scrapyard.

I was told about $40. a wheel here in Wisconsin for old Chevy truck wheels. I littlerally keep my 15x10s in my apartment, and the other 2 in the basement cage covered up very well.

[oldcarnut]

I don't think we have seen the worst of all of this.  I expect to start seeing the dishpan boys poking holes in automotive and truck gas tanks and stealing the gas just like on the Mad Max movies. 

It's already happening in some of the local service centers.  1 garage hit 3 times. They use a cordless drill in the bottom of the plastic tanks (stupidly maybe steal too) and drain it into tanks like closed in oil change collection pans.  Soon it may be the alum mags and rims on cars in parking lots after the backyards empty out. Back in high school in the early 70's I remember looking at buying a repo'd 440-6 Charger that the trunk was full of lug nuts and hand made set of lock picks.  It's been a long time since I was concerned about having gas or rims stolen and locks don't even matter now. 
I've seen the stories about theft electrocutions. Next it's going to be human gasoline fireballs.

[IowaCharger69]

Good ole' small town Iowa. My neighbor has left his 20 inch aluminum wheels with teh the low profile tires on them sitting in his driveway for two months now.

I will saw that despite the above I don't let anyone into my garage but me and my closest aquaintences and the door is always shut. I want to keep people thinking its just a shitty one car garage with an old car in it, no more no less.