Posted: 7/12/2008 4:38:49 PM EDT
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I grew up in Hamtramck and moved out about 10 years now. My Mom still has our old house there and it has been unoccupied for about 3 years now, having inherited a house in Warren where she now lives. About a week ago, some idiots broke in and started to loot the place. The neighbors called her to tell her she saw two guys exiting the house with a few boxes and they even had the balls to wave to the neighbor. The neighbors have known our family for over 30 years and they obviously did not look like the big dumb Poles that lived there. I went over and locked up the place and told the neighbors to call me if they came back. Well, they did the very next day and I got a call at work. I booked home to pick up my pistols (no guns on work property) and headed over there. I called Hamtramck's finest to go over to the place and they said that they couldn't if I wasn't there (HUH?) It turns out I missed them by under 5 minutes. I don't know if I'm happy or mad about missing them. They had broken out a number of radiators and that really seems to be the main thing they were interested in. Where do they sell them in the city? Just for scrap? How much do they get for them? My deceased brother had thousands of dollars of fishing stuff, 2 newer a/c units, and some other stuff I would think are more valuable, but they were really interested in the cast iron. 6 of them are broken and I'm going to scrap them if they are worth it. |
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I feel your pain. I bought the house next door to me. Unfortunately some slime bag got in there and hacked out all the copper plumbing (which was about 99% of the plumbing). Now I get to re-plumb the place if I don't just knock it down. It should be legal to shoot these pus sucking maggots on sight when you catch them stealing like this. |
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Short answer: With the price of metal at a premium right now, it's no surprise the radiators were taken. Criminals are stealing any metal they can get their hands on. Catching them in the act would be the ideal scenario... If possible, make the house appear to look "occupied." It goes a long ways to prevent the thieves from hitting vacant houses (ie - many foreclosed/vacant homes are easy targets). Ask your neighbors to call the PD each time a suspicious vehicle/person visits the vacant house... |
They are animals and deserve to be treated as such. 
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Several years back my brother in law was storing a pickup truck he was parting out on my parent's property, and a scrapper came by to ask if we had any scrap we'd like removed. He pointed at the truck and told us he'd haul it away for free. He mentioned how the truck had several parts on it (windshield, body panels) were in better condition than his current truck, hence the reason he wouldn't charge us. My father told him it's not his truck to give away. Several days later we received a letter from the township notifying us we had thrity days to remove an eyesore (non-operational unlicensed vehicle) or put a car cover over it (not a tarp) or store it in a shed outside of view. You couldn't see the truck from the road and it wasn't visible unless you drove up our driveway, so we figured it was the scrapper who called it in. We cleaned out a spot in the barn and towed it in. About a month later the guy came by again, asking us if we had anything to haul away, like a truck. My father pointed out to him that the truck that was sitting by the back side of the garage (concealed from the roadside view) was no longer there, and told him about the township letter and told him a story about paying someone to haul it away. |
Not sure about cast, but mild steel is only 4 cents a pound. I scrapped about two hundred feet of cyclone fence last year when I put up a wood one and only got about $12, but I had to get rid of it somehow. A lot of guys seem to be scrapping everything lately, even for 4 CPP. If there were copper lines inside, that's what they really wanted. Last I've heard from a machinist that I know is that speed steel goes for about $8 a pound. If your house has aluminum siding, look for that to go next. That is valuable right now too. There are a bunch of scrap yards around. Look in the phone book. They'll tell you what they're paying when you call. |
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Well I will chime in with my wonderful scrap stories. I am not sure if you know this but the East side of Saginaw has a bad rep for being very ghetto. Well my Dad bought this due plex on the east side about 40 years ago when the neighbor hood was still safe and nice to live in. well in the last 6 months all the siding from the houses have been stripped clean in a 15 mile radius. Well about 4 months ago my dad was going to fix some stuff and thats when he noticed this window was smashed in. Well he walked inside to find that a guy had cut a hole in the floor to get into the crawl space and the guy was still in there. Well my Dad tried to stall him and when the guy heard sirens he tried to run but my Dad tackled him and was wrestling with him until the guy hit him in the head with a copper pipe 13 times. It was the same guy who he had caught 4 other times before and had the cops tell him not to peruse because they might get confused as to who to arrest. So now he open carrys a Springfield 1911 and is currently working on his CCW. Another quick story I have is scrap thieves stole this copper roof off the top of this mausoleum from a cemetery in Saginaw. The roof was there undisturbed for hundreds years anbd because some punks wanted $200 bucks the family's have to pay for a new roof. http://www.mlive.com/saginawnews/news/index.ssf/2008/05/thieves_plunder_saginaw_mausol.html *edit* I will clean up the grammar and spelling when I get back . |
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I got the best one.... A lady and two guys were caught stealing copper wire from irrigation pipes out in the fields. The funny part is that they got busted when the tried to take the wires again the day after they were replaced. Then another thief stole a catalytic converter off from my car, in my yard...
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Reminds me of Iraq during the first days of the invasion. The Iraqi Army would bail ahead of us and the civilians would get into the bases ahead of us and by the time we got there, everything was stripped, even the flooring. I had a non-op truck in my driveway with a for sale sign in the window. The engine ran fine, but it needed brakes and springs. Just wasn't worth it to me to fix, so I decided to sell it. Was only selling it for $200. A guy came buy said he wanted to scrap it, offered me $100. I said no, he called 4 times that week, and was very pushy. Found a note from the city on it telling me to move it (no plate) in 30 days. Then after that, the phone calls started to come every day. I told the guy I was no longer interested in selling, and for him to stop calling. I did sell it to another guy who wanted to fix it for his kid. The day the guy was suppose to pick it up, two tow trucks showed up at the same time. The scrapper was going to try to steal it. Piss poor timing on his part. |
| A friend of mine lives in and maintains St. Albertus church near Eastern market. I turn on the news on Friday to see him being interviewed because someone stole part of the copper roof off the place. The church is one of the three original Polish churches in Detroit. So much for being a landmark I guess. |
Better accuracy would save taxpayers 10's if not 100's of thousands of dollars. ETA That being said, I would rather not shoot anyone, even if they are stealing from me. |
If it was just simple theft I would agree. Problem is when you walk in on a Break/n?Entering w/theft is what the theif does next. Run, yea, let him go. But what about the Guy who then charges you with a ol framing hammer and a pry bar?  A friend of mine had that happen in Mt Morris and he was not armed and almost got his @$$ handed to him cept he bolted through a steel door and slammed it into the *****'s face and ran like hell. He was chased two blocks till he looked back he was gone. If i was put in the possition and i felt "in imediate fear for me or my family's life" ...  Zar |
I made a humorous comment and then felt the need to qualify it lest readers get the wrong impression. Do not read too much into it. |
Sepsis. It's what's coming for him. 
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I'm Not.  I can attest to the Jabbing Funny's when ever the subject is brought up amoungst friends about the crap in mt morris, they all say "well if ****** was there with ya (refer to me) he would have just Blowen him away and saved you the call to the PD.  Zar |
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