Not long ago I told you about the UK Chainsaw Cabling Massacre, when thieves cut down utility poles and stole the copper cables attached to them. Electrical cables contain significantly more copper than communications cables, so they are a more-frequent target of theft than are the twisted-pair cables we know and love.
In the chainsaw case, the thieves somehow were clever enough to get away with using the high-decibel saws and steal the cable undetected. More recently, a would-be thief was neither as clever nor as lucky.
Just a couple days ago in Gloucestershire, UK, an attempted copper-cable thief got the shock of his life when he tried to hacksaw through live electrical wires. According to the This Is Gloucestershire web site, the man "was hurled 30 feet into the air ... The injured man staggered from the site to a nearby house ... to ask for help. Paramedics arrived at 11pm to treat the man, whose arm was reported to have turned black."
Few commenters on the This is Gloucestershire site sympathized with the thief/victim. One commenter, Alan, chose not to take sides on whether to feel bad for the thief or cast ill toward him. Rather, Alan said, "This sort of thing will continue to occur until some sort of control is introduced on scrap metal merchants. Anyone selling scrap should provide photo ID and have their photo taken. If the scrap metal dealer cannot prove where his scrap came from he should be charged with receiving stolen goods."
Efforts along those lines have been tried in the U.S., reportedly with limited success.
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2 comments:
This is sad to hear, I hope people learn from others mistakes and try to prioritise their lives when cabling and make sure they take the proper precautions. There is nothing more important than the safety of employees when working around such hazardous services.
I take it that this scrap thief is not an electrician nor will he ever attempt to become one.
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