Well, that was interesting ... NOT!

[Tim Watts]

or have a slightly different core alloy (copper or ali) with a "signature" trace of other elements.

[J.B.Treadstone]

That seems feasible.

[Tim Streater]

Even better, as long as the trace elements don't get consumed by the fire.

[Tim Watts]

Unlikely as they'd be in the metal which the thieving pikey scum are trying to save.

The difficulty I guess is that you have to got back much further in the chain than the cable manufacturers to do this.

Perhaps there's a process which could introduce the doping into the surface of the metal with an exotic chemical bath which would be easy to incorporate into the sleeving process.

[bert]

Don't they have to have documentation and aren't they forbidden to pay cash?

[Andy Burns]

In my recent experience they won't pay cash, but all that was required was a bank sort code + account number, no photo ID, nothing with "proof" of address.

[Tim Watts]

Bear in mind you can get pre-pay cards (for the bankrupt of credit rating) that are paired with a sort code and account number so you can "get your wages paid in".

I think I've just realised what those are actually for!

I have one - for when I really don't like/trust the equipment of who I am dealing with or for a dodgy ATM in London.

[Dave Liquorice]

In theory... You still need to proove that a bale of burnt copper is ex BT/National Rail.

[Dave Liquorice]

It does, so does the "special" alloy. But do they?

[Tim Streater]

SWMBO was at a meeting in the neighbouring village [1] this evening. Seems that the cable between our villages is all underground (about 2km or so?). Apparently the scrotes had cut the cable in two places (via two manholes), and then pulled it out so there was 400m of it lying on the ground. This must have taken long enough that they decided not to bother, or perhaps the plod was approaching with wailing sirens, anyway they legged it and got away with nothing.

Seems the cable could not be re-used, and we were lucky that there was a drum of the right stuff available locally, otherwise we'd have been off for considerably longer.

[1] Where the exchange is located.

[A.Lee]

The BT tossers round here blamed our week without the phone on thieves, yet the one who comes into the pub told us that what actually happened was that they had cut through a large fibre optic cable, and had to replace a long length of it. Blaming it on thieves was the easy option to deflect blame from them.

The we had to pay the full month for BB/phone, and claim back the week we had lost after we had paid.

[news]

I don't normally comment on grammar, except when it makes me smile

Do the the thieves who come into your pub have a use for large fibre optic cables? :-)

[Tim Streater]

I think any reasonable reading of that would have "the one" applying to the BT tossers.

[Dave Liquorice]

But does the "they" later on refer to BT or the theives?

[Tim Streater]

I would take it to be BT, because they are the subject of the sentence. Otherwise I'd expect to qualify "they", as in:

... what actually happened was that they, the thieves, had cut ...

[rick]

Go past any Pikey camp site and you will see loads of cable having PVC & smart water marking being burned off.

Scrappies happy to take it ...