El Pinko
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Wed May-21-08 12:23 AM
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Newsweek: Thefts of manhole covers increase as metals prices soar |
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http://www.newsweek.com/id/137822Rising Ripoffs Thefts of manhole covers increase as metals prices soar By Jamie Reno | Newsweek Web Exclusive May 19, 2008 | Updated: 4:26 p.m. ET May 19, 2008 Three weeks ago 12-year-old Shamira Fingers from South Philadelphia was walking down a city street near her home when she suddenly fell into an open sewer hole. Frantic witnesses called 911, and rescue crews rushed to the scene, pulled her out and took her to Children's Hospital, where she was reportedly treated and released. Investigators say Fingers was very fortunate to escape serious injury or even death after falling six feet into an open manhole, the cover of which had been stolen. In the last year a staggering 600 manhole covers have been swiped by thieves in Philadelphia.
"We used to see a handful taken each year, but nothing like this," Martin McColl, inlet cleaning supervisor for the Philadelphia Water Department, tells NEWSWEEK. "We lost 12 of them just last night in the north Philadelphia area. I'm in absolute shock by what we've seen here over the past year."
Manhole thefts aren't exclusive to Philadelphia. Thousands of cast iron manhole covers in cities across the country have been pilfered in the past year. Chicago lost 200 in one month, with 40 reportedly taken in a single day. Seventy-five have been taken recently in Greensboro, N.C. More than 50 have been stolen in Long Beach, Calif., since January. And in Cherokee County, Ga., more than 30 have been taken in just the last two weeks.
The cast iron covers, which typically weigh between 100 and 200 pounds, are being taken by opportunistic thieves responding to the increased value of scrap metal and the burgeoning demand for recycled metals in China, India, South Korea and other developing nations. In 2001 scrap metal sold for $77 a ton. In 2004 it was $300 per ton, and today it's nearly $500. Stealing the covers is usually a two- or three-man operation, police say, in which the thieves yank the covers out of their holes with crowbars, throw them in the backs of vans or trucks, and take them to scrap metal yards, where they get only $10 to $20 per cover.
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RL3AO
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Wed May-21-08 12:27 AM
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DS1
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Wed May-21-08 12:31 AM
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2. Remembering a story about manhole covers being made in China and shipped here |
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Edited on Wed May-21-08 12:32 AM by DS1
and the cause of this increase in crime is joblessness, I can only point to the obvious.
Bring the jobs back home.
We all pay less in the long run.
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madokie
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Wed May-21-08 05:53 AM
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4. except the greedy bastards in between there and here won't make as much money |
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We have a local fertilizer plant reopen recently that has been closed now for about 15 or so years. Theres a couple other plants in our industrial park that is and has been closed for years that once we see the light and stop shipping the jobs overseas will be able to come back into production rather quickly and easily. My hope is that the plants that have closed aren't all being robbed of their metals for scrap. I know some around here have not as of yet. Even if they are the buildings and related infastructure is in place so as to help in the startups that are surely to come. Its not a matter of if the jobs come back its only a matter of when. imo
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hootinholler
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Wed May-21-08 05:47 AM
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3. I have a vision of a wall of manhole covers... |
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