Thieves Stealing Guardrails

[voivod]

OAKLAND, CA -- Under the cover of darkness, a new breed of thieves has been ripping off guardrails on some of the Bay Area's most dangerous roadways to turn them into cash as prices in the scrap aluminum market continue to go up, according to Bay Area transportation officials.

Caltrans officials say the thefts were not only endangering drivers' lives, but also costing taxpayers thousands of dollars in replacement costs.

"This is a huge problem," said Caltrans spokesman Jeff Weiss. "There's hundreds of feet of guard rail that's being stolen every night."

One of the latest locations struck was on the Moraga Ave. exit along Highway 13 in the Oakland hills.

"It's a major undertaking…to go and steal a guard rail," Weiss said. "But apparently aluminum is so expensive now that it's a good business to be in. "

Mike Anglin says he drives by the exit every day and recently started to notice guardrails disappearing.

"I'd come home at night and see them there and the next morning take the kids to school and they'd be gone," he said.

Caltrans said guard rails were being stolen all over the Bay Area. On the peninsula, a favorite target is along Highway 92. In the East Bay, Interstate 880 exits at 66th avenue, Highway 580 at Keller and on Highway 24 were also targeted.

On Wednesday night, thieves stole a bunch of the tubular railing on the bridge just before the Caldecott Tunnel.

"If a driver were to strike that, the guardrail would just come off and they'd go flying off the bridge or into a tree or something like that," Weiss said. "It's a safety hazard and it's very expensive."

Caltrans has joined forces with the California Highway Patrol in sting operations to try to catch the thieves. Local scrap metal yards have also been alerted to be on the lookout for people bringing in guard rails.

However, the efforts so far have come up empty of suspects.

"It would seem like it would be easy to catch these people, but they have a method of operation that makes it difficult to catch them," Weiss said. "And there are so many bridges that you can't have your eyes on them at all times."

Caltrans says its crews only work on guard rails during daylight. Officials were asking the public to call police if you see someone working on guard rails at night.

[the_atomic_punks_rule]

death penalty. period. We'd see how many more railings are stolen.

[chefcraig]

This has been going on here in South Florida for years, yet the thing is that the guard rails are not made from aluminum. One would be better served collecting cans.

What does tend to be somewhat more frightening is the relatively new phenomenon of steeling aluminum light posts. These things are at times as big as a telephone pole, and are convenient if one wishes to make a home-made bomb casing.

[Red]

'Round here, it's copper.....HVAC equipment is being stripped everyday, usually at businesses and new residential sites. I've even heard of old abandoned houses being stripped of electrical wiring; the perps simply burn the stuff in a barrel, or take the time to strip it by hand, and sell the copper at the local recycler. I always wanted to use "perps" in a post.

[ZeoBandit]

How the heck are these people getting away with hundreds of feet of guard rail and no one notices them being taken apart?

[Red]

How the heck are these people getting away with hundreds of feet of guard rail and no one notices them being taken apart?

Yeah, really. How come no one ever actually sees these ballsy perps?

[LLFHS]

Wasn't this a plotline in "My Name Is Earl"???????

[Wolfgang_'99]

Wasn't this a plotline in "My Name Is Earl"???????

LOL how true!!

[smithjc]

Jeez don't the metal scrappers question or wonder wtf people are doing with guard rails in the first place???????

Effin tweakers.

[Axxman300]

Scrap metal guys are starting to get with it, mostly because they want to get ahead of the government.

On the Urban Exploration board I haunt, Copper Thieves are a common topic, the abandoned Army base I live near has seen almost every building de-wired.

The one of the best stories I've heard about tweakers and aluminum was told by a guy who works at a scrap yard. He and his boss are in the office when they hear a strange noise, but they don't check on it. A few minutes later, a Meth-head walks in with Aluminum siding and asks how much he can get for it. The guy thinks the siding looks familiar so he goes out the back and chacks and sure enough, the guy had taking the siding off of the scrap-yard's office. That was the noise they heard. They called the cops.

My other favorite story is mine.

I had received a request to get pictures of a mural inside one of the barracks at Fort Ord from a veteran. So I slip inside and search and I'm finding all kinds of stuff torn apart. Well, I get the pictures and I'm heading out when I notice a canvase tool bag full of prybars and wire stripping tools. It was sitting there wide open just inside of the door.

So I dropped my pants and took a steamer right dead-center of the open bag. It was a small victory, but I'd do it again.

[ddzavis]

There are also taking catalytic converters off of vehicles for the platinum. they look for 4WD's or vehicles a little higher off of the ground so it's an easy grab. We have folks around here also stealing from one scrapyard and taking the metal to another scrapper. I'd get the biggest JYD to bite there asses.

[Ted Van Halen]

Last Christmas the maintenance crew dissasembled one of the chrome tanks in our tool shop for a tank repair. There's gobs of copper bars on that tank. Well, over the shutdown, somebody made off with all of it. Cost $1000 just in material. Not counting machining to make it all like it was.


As for the rails, just wire ac current from a nearby utility pole to the aluminum railing. Pound for pound aluminum is actually a better conductor than copper so anybody messing around there at night will be found there in the morning.


Ted

[Red]

As for the rails, just wire ac current from a nearby utility pole to the aluminum railing. Pound for pound aluminum is actually a better conductor than copper so anybody messing around there at night will be found there in the morning.


Ted

Burnt perps. I admire the effectiveness as well as the finality of this plan.

[Ted Van Halen]

Burnt perps. I admire the effectiveness as well as the finality of this plan.

The beauty is the simplicity. It's point A to point B.

Woe be unto the common criminal if I ever rule the world. Which is exactly why I never will.



Ted