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Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

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Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#21

Post by bombcar »

pelorat wrote: post #14
trompetenaccoun wrote: post #13

Wow. My feeling is that metal theft is getting out of control. If the news reporting on it is to be trusted, cases are in fact rising. Thieves have probably always hit junkyards and stolen wire, but now there seems to be more and more infrastructure hit as well. The oddest aspect of this is that scrap steel isn't even worth that much. How many tons could that be? Let's say it's 400 tons, that's maybe $100k. And it se…

[flagged]

A nutcase would have dropped the tower and left it down, not removed the tower itself.

They'll find the scrapyard that received it and track it down from there. Unless it was done months ago and they just finally noticed.

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#23

Post by roamerz »

InitialLastName wrote: post #8
dgrin91 wrote: post #7

How come they didn't notice that their service went dead when the tower was stolen?

The tweet says "a tower site" which implies they have others. It's entirely possible/likely that they have multiple towers for better coverage; if one went down they would lose some coverage area but not all of it. It's an AM station, so they may also shut down overnight (as many small stations do to avoid over-propagation). Off topic: I could have guessed that guy was a radio station manager without any context. The…

>There's just a look to them.

Yup I’ve got a face for radio as well.

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#26

Post by sokoloff »

hiddencost wrote: post #10

Steel scraps at $225 a ton.. That's about what a large pickup truck can haul. Copper is worth 20x more. I dunno, if you're willing to work that hard you could probably just become a contractor.

I think the issue is that some people are willing to work quite hard, but only intermittently. (Though that doesn't necessarily disqualify them from being a contractor either, I suppose.)

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#27

Post by azornathogron »

delichon wrote: post #2

I need to check my homeowner's insurance to see if I'm covered if the house is stolen.

Not as implausible as it sounds...

The guy in Luton whose house was stolen did get it back, but it took two years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67356...

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#28

Post by ryandrake »

bombcar wrote: post #21
pelorat wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

A nutcase would have dropped the tower and left it down, not removed the tower itself. They'll find the scrapyard that received it and track it down from there. Unless it was done months ago and they just finally noticed.

Never underestimate a "nutcase's" willingness to additionally grift and profit when it aligns with their nutcase-ness. Delusional but not stupid.

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#30

Post by Cthulhu_ »

zdragnar wrote: post #18
trompetenaccoun wrote: post #13

Wow. My feeling is that metal theft is getting out of control. If the news reporting on it is to be trusted, cases are in fact rising. Thieves have probably always hit junkyards and stolen wire, but now there seems to be more and more infrastructure hit as well. The oddest aspect of this is that scrap steel isn't even worth that much. How many tons could that be? Let's say it's 400 tons, that's maybe $100k. And it se…

Our local metro area has had a problem with copper thieves for a few years now, cutting open and stealing the wiring from street lights. People are why we can't have nice things, apparently.

They're targeting rail infrastructure here, but a lot of copper there is being replaced with cheaper materials like aluminium.
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