'Scrap Yards Are the New Pawn Shops'

Take one helping of an economy wrecked by rampant greed, reckless speculation, and failed policies, and combine that with financial and other markets distorted by the same toxic brew, and what do you get? Developments like these:

"Antioch Copper Wire Thieves Reach New High – Or Low" (KCBS)

ANTIOCH – Just days after Pacific Gas and Electric lamented the ongoing and widespread theft of copper wire from its Antioch power poles, the utility is now revealing that a particularly brazen thief – or thieves – stole an entire transformer from a power pole.

This is in addition to the knocking down of an estimated 300 power poles, stripping them of their lucrative copper wiring.

There is copper wiring in the transformer, as well.

It’s a risky move, the utility warned, because it’s energized electrical wiring that’s being taken. In fact, people have been electrocuted or otherwise seriously injured attempting to lift the wiring.

It will cost PG&E tens of thousands of dollars to replace the downed power poles and stolen transformer. The price tag to replace just one power pole and its missing transformer: $12,000.

"Thieves Steal 4-Thousand Dollars in Storm Drain Covers" (WINK)

ALVA, FL-Thousands of dollars of your taxpayer dollars gone down the drain.

That's after thieves stole at least 10 storm drain covers from various Lee County locations.

Metal drains, grates, and covers the Florida Department of Transportation says at one time, they've all been stolen from swales and retention ponds in Lee County.

Now deputies say thieves have a new target storm drain covers or scuppers.

Debbie Towers with the Florida Department of Transportation says, "One of our maintenance crew members was doing routine checks for ditches and swales and  and discovered that some aluminum scuppers were missing."

She says at least four thousand dollars worth were taken from 10 locations within the last two months from various retention ponds along state road 80.

Frank Neal, The vice president of the Charleston Park Neighborhood Association, says, "People are trying to survive."

"Train Derails After Thieves Steal Tracks" (Gawker)

Maureen O'Connor — A train derailed in Taunton, Massachusetts yesterday after thieves apparently used a blowtorch to steal two 8-foot, 900-lb chunks of solid steel track. Luckily, the train was moving slowly when the conductor hit the brakes, so no one was injured. Though this crime initially baffled me (what the hell would you do with a 900-lb railroad track?) Taunton's police chief barely batted an eye:

    I'm not really surprised. It just shows you people do desperate things to get drug money.

Apparently scrap yards are the new pawn shops; metal theft the more desperate version of cat burglary. The thieves made off with one of tracks, and abandoned the second one in a field.

"Thieves Steal Copper Pipes from Church" (The Herald)

ROCK HILL -- Someone stole copper pipes from the air conditioning unit of a Rock Hill church late last week.

The pastor of Harvest Baptist Church, located on Miller Pond Road, said sometime between Wednesday night and Friday evening someone had cut and removed the copper pipe from the unit, according to a Rock Hill police report.

Officers noted that two copper pipes, valued at a total of $400, were missing. The pipes are about 6-feet long and 1-inch in diameter, according to the report.

"HPD: Suspects Flee After Caught Red-Handed at North Houston Steel Business" (KHOU)

HOUSTON—Two suspects, who were attempting to steal from a north Houston business, eluded capture early Thursday, according to Houston police.

A Houston police officer was doing regular patrols when he spotted two suspicious men at the fence of an alloy manufacturing business located on Priest at Hardy around 3 a.m.

The suspects bolted after seeing police.

The officer’s squad car was parked by the pickup truck the suspects were in, so the two left their vehicle and ran into the woods.

K-9 units and an HPD helicopter assisted in the search, but authorities could not locate the suspects.

Police ran the license plates on the pickup truck that was left behind, and the truck was not reported stolen.

Police said the suspects were using a dolly to move large steel plates from the business, which has lost an estimated $100,000 in merchandise recently.

"Metal Thieves Delay Opening of Atl. Pools" (Atlanta Business Chronicle)

Kids in two Atlanta communities won’t have their neighborhood pools to help beat the summer heat, at least for now. Thieves used what is believed to be sledge hammers to bust walls and break fixtures in bathrooms at Adams and South Bend parks to steal copper, brass and steel. The city is estimating damage at $85,000, reports WGCL-TV.

"Thieves Steal Copper Coils from AC Units in Ankeny" (Iowa City Press-Citizen)

Seven businesses at Ankeny's Delaware Town Center had no air conditioning for at least two days after copper coils were taken out of nine air conditioning units.

The damage to the units was discovered June 7. Police Chief Gary Mikulec said the thefts occurred throughout the night of June 6.

"The estimated replacement value of the units is about $10,000 - and that's for all the affected units," Mikulec said. "The estimated weight (that was taken) might yield $4,000."

Aspen Aire Heating and Cooling does service work for Nutrishop, one of the businesses that was a victim to the copper coil thefts. Aspen Aire President Justin Gibson said he's never seen anything like this theft.

"I mostly see people cut electrical wires for its copper from homes - seen that a few times this year," Gibson said. "I've never seen anyone steal coils out of a air conditioning unit. That's pretty gutsy in the middle of Ankeny."

"New Attacks On Cellphone Towers Impacting Service" (KCCI)

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Thieves have been breaking into homes and businesses trying to steal copper pipes and wires for years, but now they have a new target -- cellphone towers.

"Here in the 3500 block of East Douglas, several cellphone towers were hit at this one location early yesterday morning," said Des Moines Police Sgt. Christ Scott.

Police said the two towers service Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular. In the middle of the night, the phone companies were alerted of a power failure by alarms going off. They found the power meters pulled off and taken, the ground wires cut and all the copper gone.

The same night, another AT&T tower was stripped on Indiana St., according to police. About two weeks ago, thieves using the same method struck a different AT&T and Erikson service tower on the 1800 block of County Line Road. Police said at one tower alone, they took at least 150 feet of thick copper wire.

Scrap dealers said copper is now selling for between $3 and $4 per pound, and they pay cash. They said there's no way to tell if something is stolen because so many demolition and construction crews bring in scrap metal.

"Thieves Steal Central Air Units from Salvation Army" (WHAS)

Three of four air conditioning units were stolen Friday night from the Salvation Army in Portland. Now, they're unable to cool their building as temperatures are expected to reach well into the 90's next week. To make matters worse, The Salvation Army in Portland is expecting more people to come through their building starting on Monday.
 
 “It must of took quite an organization to get that much equipment out without being found,” said Maj. Jim Edmonds, the pastor at the Salvation Army in Portland.
 
The three air conditioning units weigh about 300 pounds each and sat on top of 8 ft. high platforms where the thieves had to dismantle them and remove them from behind a locked fence.
 
“If they put all that effort to helping people or helping themselves in a positive way, it would probably go a long way to being successful,” said Edmonds. “But evidently they're successful at doing the wrong things.”

But it's all good -- right?

Comments

[Tyrone]

Perhaps the thieves should start stealing surveillance cameras. Just a thought.

[Blurtman]

When the government refuses to enforce the law, e.g. Wall Street fraud, then there is no law.

[Benny & Timmy can't hear you...their phone only picks up for TBTF]

Hey to the guys on top the economy is humming like a fine tuned Maserati....the rest of us hear....NOISE?

Noise, Not a Recovery

The above chart explains why 48% of Americans now believe the economy is, instead, headed into a depression. Depression, not recession, is the correct economic term for the following set of conditions: structural unemployment, high levels of indebtedness, debt deflation, and the failure of the economy to recover through the normal channels of housing, autos, and through monetary policy. In short, demand cannot restart because its constrained by debt.

http://gregor.us/california/noise-not-a-recovery/

[archivesDave]

good article Michael...
archivesDave

[Alexander Ac]

Yes, that is so called "Catabollic collapse" proposed by JM Greer. People just consume of what is left from the working infrastructure... should it be different (this time)?

[Tom]

Scavenging is what happens when desperation takes over in a failed economy. When there are no jobs paying livable wages one turns to "other means" to stay alive. i'm sure robberies of all kinds are up and will continue to increase the longer this condition lasts. People are in survival mode.

[Sandra]

Quite puzzling!

[Incorporate then plunder]

They should incorporate before they pilfer..will help if they get caught!

A License to Lie, Backdated

The Supreme Court held is that, even though employees of Janus Capital Management company actually wrote any misleading statements, even though they managed nearly every substantive aspect of the operation of the fund, they cannot be held responsible because they did not “make” the statements. The “person” under law who made the statements was the entity on whose behalf the offending prospectus was issued, the investment fund, which has no capital other than the money it invests for shareholders. Under Janus, the management company is beyond the reach of aggrieved investors.

The really high-stakes fraud lately has been in the securitization business. The Janus decision gives CDO arrangers a huge get-out-of-lawsuits-free card. Each asset-backed security or CDOs is its own little investment company, a “special purpose vehicle” with its own notional directors or trustees, often incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Under the reasoning of Janus, any misleading statements in the offering documents for a securitization were made by the SPV, not the investment bank that put together the documents or arranged the deal. The SEC relied in part on Rule 10b-5 in prosecuting Goldman Sachs for its failure to disclose material facts regarding the ABACUS deal. Under Janus, that would no longer be possible.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/06/a-license-to-lie-backdated/

[Indebted to U,,,niversity?]

Bill Gross: "College Is Worthless"

It is becoming obvious that the 2012 election will be fought on a battlefield of job creation. A 9.1% official unemployment rate, and a number nearly double that when discouraged and part-time workers are included in the rolls, portend an angry and disillusioned electorate, which will include millions of jobless college graduates ill-trained to compete in the global marketplace. Over the past 10 years under both Democratic and Republican administrations, only 1.8 million jobs have been created while the available labor force has grown by over 15 million. It is clear, however, that neither party has an awareness of the why or the wherefores of how to put America back to work again.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bill-gross-college-worthless?

[All aboard]

Are you sipping the kool-aid?

Early Signs of Physical World Breakdown

In Europe Agriculture and Energy, In Japan as a result of Fukushima, in NY in regards to Wall Street jobs, in Washington in regards to pensions, and in the US in terms of medicine and access to medicine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAooDnscb7s&feature=youtube_gdata

[marty]

There's likely more on the way- why not? Lawlessness, fraud, deceit- all with no consequences is fine for the Wall Streeters....why shouldn't we all do it?

Where else might a desperate person find valuables, hmmmm??

The gated communities will only protect for so long.....

[kevinearick]

Identity Theft & Bankruptcy

It all begins with self-identity. The education propaganda system, certification, credit reports, and the rest are designed to impose identity upon you. That’s the DC current, and the vast majority simply floats downstream with it, expecting the minority to follow suit, when the latter are holding all trump. If landlords and employers are stupid enough to define you by your credit and education reports then they are stupid enough to get what they get.

Facebook was popular because it gave people the opportunity to self-identify, but, of course, the vast majority chose to reinforce the identity assigned to them by their social filter, giving control right back to Caesar. How you use the tools is up to you. If you want to blow up the planet, no problem, the universe will get along fine, with or without humans.

Your identity depends entirely upon your relationship with God, and you are free to define God, until you give that right to the majority, which is pretty damn stupid, and you get what you get. Free will is a grant from God, not the government.

This last gal is sending an old copy of my trade resume, from two states away, applying for jobs she wants me to have, planning my future as her workhorse. Others have taken my identity on blogs, republishing previous work, “thinking” to use it as a segway for themselves. At the end of the day, however, I don’t have to care how others identify me, because there is only one me, and to the extent they misidentify me they either open the gap, disconnecting their own economy, or close the gap, shorting it out.

It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, because you are about to get the opportunity to identify yourself again, and join the community of your choice accordingly. How you employ that tool is up to you. Those who have been practicing for the last three years will be farthest ahead initially. If you want to give control back to Caesar, that’s up to you. I don’t need the defense establishment overhead. All politics are local; the rest is an aggregate outcome.

If you are dependent on agency for a check, you are f***ed. Get out of that box, even if it means creating your own currency. If you start a business and bring any value of any kind to it, that is an asset on the balance sheet. Your identity, your brand, is your most important asset. You have intrinsic value (Declaration of Independence). Goodwill is your next most important value, which represents the quality of your customers (market). Next is your unique skills and abilities (Constitution). Do you see anything physical, dependent on Caesar, there?

If Caesar’s minions can write off expenses, to pay 0 taxes until their product is finished and get “special” tax treatment upon completion, so can you. Build your wave randomly and wait until the noose is about to break Caesar’s neck before you insert the last piece to catalyze the cycle. If the current crop of operators doesn’t want to pay you, the next will, with interest and penalties. Income is a derivative. Quality of life is what you care about, which is no way dependent on fiat currency, and is entirely dependent on the community you choose to join.

Some people are worth charging no rent, requiring no fiat currency, and others are not worth rent, no matter how much fiat currency they have. No law requires you to send money to the state, unless you accept your assigned identity. Taxes are a function of fiat currency. Accept currency accordingly. It’s an addiction, like everything else peddled by Caesar. All things in moderation. A dc regulator filters out. An ac regulator filters in. Affect time in your community accordingly. Effective use of time is more important than efficient use of time, which is why the latter results in slavery to the curve every time.

They have spent $20 trillion in “wealth” over the last three years and what do they have to show for it? Caesar is a tiny dot in the universe, and always will be, unless you make fiat currency your universe. Accept sunk costs, salvage what you can, and move on. That’s the learning process.

[Cal. taxpayer]

I live in the San Francisco area. When I go jogging along the Bay in Alameda, CA
I always see several fishermen near the Harbor Bay Ferry/Oakland Airport. Most are immigrants, speaking a foreign language.
Does not matter what time of year, whether it is legal season for fishing,or not.
Since most do not have a fishing license (which must be displayed), it doesn't matter. They will take anything that they can catch.
Have NEVER seen a Dept. of Fish and Game warden in that area, enforcing the law.

[Sam]

Alan Greenspan and George W Bush's dimwit Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao, Mitch McConnell's wife, both chirped "health sciences" as the only jobs left in the US. If you didn't pay attention, you're responsible. The wait list for a two year registered nurse degree is two years, last time I looked. The nurse faculty don't give a rat's butt about unemployment; they have job security.

If you are hospitalized, take your radio with you. You'll have plenty of time to listen to Rush Limbaugh's three hour radio "program," and i use that term lightly. If you're white and male, you'll be absolutely last priority on the ward if it's staffed by African-Americans enjoying job security via the health sciences degrees.

[Jim A]

Hey Sam in case you forgot George Bush is not President anymore! For the last 2 1/2 years Barark Obama has been leading our country. President Obama has assured us that present conditions are only a bump in the road, nothing to worry about.

[Stevew]

Mexican Illegals all.

[Davep]

Another theft of infrastructure, and this is in the "nice" suburban area:

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/06/22/thousands-without-power-in-cranberry-twp/

[MichaelZ]

Well this is what happens when you don't pay enough tax to fund social programs which keep people from going hungry or turning to drugs in times of desperation. And when you don't have a minimum wage that is even liveable, let alone adequate to lubricate the productive economy.

Surprise surprise, society is based on the interactions of everyone, not just a select few.

The USA is a fabulously wealthy nation yet it cannot afford to offer it's citizens any hope for the future? I'd feel sorry for them if they didn't bring it upon themselves with their wild support of reaganomics and other idiotic political notions.