The city has started chaining them down, but I don't think this will be much of a deterrent. Other places have welded them in place, which does slow down maintenance.
The odd thing is that they aren't worth much and any scrap yard buying them has to know they are stolen.
Taking all the piping and electrical wiring out of foreclosed homes in the US is a rising trend as well.
Time to watch Mad Max again... Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
A side effect of this is that the police department keeps a pretty good eye on the pawn shops and flea market dealers, and this spills over to the surplus metal market. I was at a metal store recently and asked about this, and they said that they get regular visits from the police department to remind them about the need to stay legal. The main recycling place here won't even buy copper any more.
So that brings up my question: What do you do with a stolen manhole cover or house plumbing pipes or street lamp wire? Somebody has to be the buyer. It's not like fuel that can be sold on a retail black market, because not many people are interested in manhole covers...
One scrap dealer came up with the best plan. he got the contract for installing a selection of new streetlamps, and cut four feet from the bottom of them leaving only 6 inches in the groud rather than the usual several feet to anchor against the elements, which was fine, till the first high wind. He might have got away with it if he hadn't been greedy and left the tubes standing in his yard for the metal price to go up. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
