Some homes worth less than their copper pipes, literally thieves are gutting homes for the pipes

[Herman Munster]

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2527885420080401

BROCKTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Shards of broken glass outside the basement window of 31 Vine Street hint at the destruction inside the three-story home.

Thieves smashed the window to break in and then gutted the property for its copper pipes -- a crime that has spread across the United States as the economy slows and foreclosed homes stand empty and vulnerable.

"They cut it here and then pulled it right out of the wall," real estate broker Marc Charney said, pointing to broken plaster near a wrecked baseboard heating system in the 2,774-sq-ft home in Brockton, Massachusetts, a working-class city of 94,304 people.

Similar stories are unfolding nationwide as a glut of home foreclosures coincides with record highs in the price of copper and other metals.

Real estate brokers and local authorities say once-proud homes coast-to-coast are being stripped for copper, aluminum, and brass by thieves. Much of it ends up with scrap metal traders who say nearly all copper gets shipped overseas, much of it to China and India.

In areas hit hardest by foreclosures, such as the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, copper and other metals used in plumbing, heating systems and telephone lines are now more valuable than some homes.

"We're in an incredibly unfortunate time where the nonferrous metals commodities market for scrap is at an all-time high. Houses are getting stripped pretty quickly once they go through the foreclosure process," Cleveland city councilor Tony Brancatelli said.

[XemaSab]

1. I went to go buy a copper pipe for the birdbath in the back yard

a food and a half of copper pipe: 15 bucks. :o

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. -

[Ghost in the Machine]

3. Shoulda used PVC.. much much cheaper...

[DarkTirade]

6. Yeah, but PVC doesn't work when you're a making an illegal alcohol sti...

err...

...

...

Forget you saw anything.

[Ghost in the Machine]

7. LOL!

i see nusink..nusssssssssink!

[DarkTirade]

8. I actually thought about making a still to help with my homebrewing a while back...

but not to distill the mead I was brewing.

No, it was because I lived in Florida, and the tap water was so nasty I wanted to distill THAT before I used it in my brewing. :P That, and occasionally a hurricane would come through and tear open the water main and it wouldn't be safe to drink the water for a day or two. Got to be a bit of a nuisance. Now that I'm in a place that has decent water and no hurricanes it's not an issue anymore.

[XemaSab]

9. The point was to have a decorative pipe dripping into the bird bath

You're not from Redding, CA, by any chance, are you? :shrug: :P

'Cause the birdbath itself is in Redding, and, well....

''You could build a decent bridge with 55-gallon drums for 500 bucks.''

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E4D6123DF93AA25751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

[Ghost in the Machine]

13. Ever heard of gold or copper colored spray paint?

:shrug: Still would have come out cheaper

I'm from the backwoods of Tennessee {cue banjo music} and we have fancified big city stuff like that here... :rofl:

Actually, I'm *from* Miami, Fla, but reside in Tenn. now and call it home...

[cornermouse]

4. They're stealing telephone wire as well.

A small town in the area was without telephone service for 2 days.

[MrSlayer]

5. Copper is over 3 bucks a pound here.

Lots of it is disappearing off of jobsites around here.

[csziggy]

11. It's being taken off AC units, too

I read a report that in Birmingham ALA a few months back the copper was ripped out of several AC units on the roofs of a series of businesses in a shopping center. Another in a building forum was about the drywall installers noticing that the wires were cut off in the walls. All the copper wire had been torn out of the house under construction. It costs the owner-builder tens of thousands to have the drywall that had been done taken out, rewire the house and keep guards on duty until the house was completed enough to be secured.


At the time I thought this was ridiculous, but copper has just gotten more and more valuable. And more and more people are losing their jobs or simply not able to make ends meet.

[-..__...]

15. Yeah...

the cost of manufacturing, supplies, shipping and selling of meth has skyrocketed due to the economy. chemical and fuel supplies.

"And more and more people are losing their jobs or simply not able to make ends meet"

[NNN0LHI]

10. Ghouls have been stealing bronze markers from cemeteries around here and elsewhere

http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=HPIA,HPIA:2006-34,HPIA:en&q=cemetery%2Bbronze&um=1&sa=N&tab=wn

[AnnieBW]

12. Midnight plumbers

That's what they were called back in Pittsburgh.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

14. One of the houses I am trying to sell right now...

...had everything stripped out of it over the weekend. Luckily the guy buying the place is awesome and is being patient so we can file an insurance claim. People are so ridiculous. My boss actually chastised me because I blamed Meth Heads. "What, like they got such a bad rap for nothing?"
Duckie