Shoplifter of the Week: Copper edition

[Kuskokwim]

(Nov. 23)

Deputies in Kent County, Mich., are looking for three men who allegedly stole shopping carts full of copper items and tools from Menards stores in Ohio and Michigan, according to a report by WZZM-TV.

Authorities have identified 38-year-old Franklin Miller, 27-year-old Lance Trecek and 23-year-old Thomas Schafer as the suspects. In at least three incidents, detectives said, merchandise was stolen when one person stood at a checkout holding a large piece of drywall or fencing to block the cashier's view. The other two men would then push out carts full of copper and tools.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

In *our* local Menards (in a county adjoining Kent) one would have to push the shopping cart past the customer service desk, which is usually staffed.

Perce

[Home Guy]

This happens every time copper reaches near $4 a pound.

Copper has been over $3/lb since june/july, and over $3.50 since early october.

Copper crashed and reached a low point in Jan 2009 around $1.25, and from there it's pretty much been increasing linearly ever since (with a major hickup in February and June this year).

Copper really has never been higher than $4/lb, not at least during the past 5 years.

High prices seem to coincide with low stock-house inventory levels, but we're still at high stock levels compared to 3, 4 and 5 years ago, so these high copper prices reflect a bubble of some sort.

Until sanity brings copper back down, everybody better keep their outside copper hvac and electrical stuff well protected.

[ransley]

Where I am HD and menards have guards that sign every reciept, even if they see you check out you still have to show a reciept.

[Higgs Boson]

Takes me back...waaaaayyyy back - to my (camera) safari in Kenya. You could buy handsome copper bracelets. Made from copper wire the natives stole from the phone lines.

HB

[hallerb]

melting down pennies is profitable but illegal, since your destroying US currency........

[Home Guy]

You don't have to go all the way to africa to see that.

Lots of stories here in US/Canada about people driving down country roads with telco or electric wire tied to the back bumper of their pickup truck, driving down country roads ripping wires off poles.

[aemeijers]

Chuckle. Back in the day, before copper was valuable enough to have a dedicated scrap collection bucket on job sites or in the truck, 12 and

14 ga copper trimmings, and even 24? ga phone cable trimmings, were a common art class item at HS and college level. Copper pipe stubs as well. Give the kids experience with metal forming and soldering and such. Jewelry, little wire-form sculptures, window/wall hanging things, that sort of stuff.

Dunno what they use these days, if anything. I know the fancy stuff on rolls from art supply houses was way overpriced, even back then. I presume the boxes of scrap wire I saw in classrooms as a kid were from friends of the teacher, or the in-house electrician, or donated by parents of students. But I saw them in several different cities and schools.

[aemeijers]

Anybody remember what year they switched pennies to flash-plated zinc? They haven't been solid copper for awhile.

-- aem sends...

[Jeff Thies]

Here (Atlanta), scrap yards will only issue checks for copper, names and descriptions are kept on file.

Nice plan, near as I can tell it does not work. Didn't for me anyways!

Jeff

[Jeff Thies]

1982

[Tony Miklos]

That's an old wives tale. You are allowed to destroy all the money you want to. It's good for our economy! What you aren't allowed to do is to make it appear to be worth more than it is. Like turning a $1 into a $100 by cutting and pasting extra 0's on it. The US statute which prohibits the mutilation of US currency only applies if you try to use it fraudulently.

And collecting money is good for our economy also, that is why the US Mint makes so many different types of coins, like the ones with the states on them. If people collect them and it stays out of circulation, it increases the value of our dollar. Same with the post office and stamp collectors.

[Country]

I took a pickup load of scrap metal over to the scrap yard a few weeks ago. I had about 1700 pounds of scrap that I got $156 for but I had a bucket of just copper that weighed ten pounds and got $21 for that. But to sell the copper, I had to give my ID, social security number and a thumb print. The paid me cash for the scrap and wrote a check for the copper.

Around here, there are guys that just travel the roads with a tuck and trailer looking for stuff people leave out beside the road to get rid of. That was my first ever trip to the junk yard so now I can see how they make a bit of money doing that. You don't even have to take stuff apart. You just drive up on the scales and get weighed then go to the yard where they just take a big magnet and lift all the junk right out of your truck and then go back and weigh your empty truck and get your check.

-C-

[Red Green]

Country wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Giving my SSN and thumbprint to a SCRAP YARD is not worth $21...to me.

[hallerb]

well it costs more to make pennies than the face value, which is why they say dont destroy them....

[hallerb]

[e-mail]:

soon cash will be obsolete, everything done with debit credit cards for easy tracking.

but no card needed, just a convenient chip in your skin. put hand on scanner it reads your id chip and confirms your fingerprints.

brings up a screen of cards you can use pick one and go.

much more secure and your in the system.....

big brother just started launching a constellation of new spy says, antennas the size of a football field.

to defeat terrorism

[Harry K]

:

WWII IIANM. I vaguely recall plain zinc (no plating) but that was back when I was in school with Jesus.

Harry K

[Harry K]

[e-mail]:

I'm debating selling my copper scrap. I have a 55 gal drum full of wire ends, pipe cut-offs, etc from a liftime of tearing down buildings, rehabing two 'shacks', etc. I'd have to empty it one bucket at a time as I can't even move it now.

Harry K

[Country]

They do that at the Menards here but only if you drive back into the bulk storage area and load you vehicle. Then your vehicle has to be inspected before leaving the yard. I only did that once and when I need stuff that would require me to go into that area of Menards I now go to Lowes or HD.

A couple of years ago, I bought some small item at Best Buy and the guard at the door saw me check out only 10 feet away and he still stopped me and looked at my receipt and in my bag. As I left, I said "Thanks for treating me like a thief." That was the last time they ever checked my bag when leaving that store.

-C-

[Jon Danniken]

You are under no legal obligation to provide any merchant with proof of purchase once you have paid for your merchandise (at that moment, both the items, and the proof (receipt) are your property). The only way they are able to get away with this is that the overwhelming majority of people do not know their rights under the law, and are willing to submit to anyone with a shiny piece of metal on his or her uniform.

Jon