This phenomena is not limited to the wonderful, magical city of Dayton I see. In fact it is everywhere. You can read about it in these newspaper articles.
Article #1
Article #2
Article #3
It has raised its ugly head in our neighborhood in the last few months and the bad news is that unless a home is occupied and the owner is willing to prosecute there is little that can be done to the scrap metal thieves. We have had most of the aluminum and iron removed by me stolen off of our property over the last few years. I never fussed because I was going to throw it out anyway. I only got a little pissed when the FREE iron clawfoot tub got stolen off the front porch (the feet to which were inside the house and have recently been donated to another houseblogger) and the covers to my cisterns were stolen.
Copper pipes are being removed and the water left running by some of these thieves, many of which have addictions to crack and crystal meth. The few dollars they make from stealing 20 lbs of aluminum siding doesn't equal the Thousands of $$$ in damage they do to a house or the immediate loss in property values by surrounding houses.
Makes you wish you could just pick up your house and move it to OBF (that's Outer Bum F*ck to the cultured among you or Outer Bum Phuck to the cultured and scientific among you) Pennsyltucky or some where like Crow Mountain, near Russelville, Arkansas.
Sorry John, I couldn't resist the plug. Since you actually did pick up a house and move it from OBF to Outer OBF Egypt.
From log house to farmhouse. Farmhouse to townhouse. Townhouse to apartment house. Apartment house to crack house. Crack house to our house. Our house to our home.
A young couple restoring a victorian in Vancouver had their house stripped of copper, I don't think the water suppy was hooked, they ended up sleeping in the unfinished house, so nothing else got stolen though.
ReplyDeleteI took down the gutters on a house I'm working on in Kettering and within two days, they were gone from behind the garage where I thought I had "hid" them. It was a neighbor I'm sure of it. Maybe the same that broke in and stole the tools from the house? Over in Lower Dayton View, btwn Grand and Riverside are low rent housing subsidized by the gov't. Brand new and empty. All the pipes and Central Air were pilfered before people could move in. What a waste.
ReplyDeleteWow! I didn't know it was *that* bad. I do intend to recycle the aluminum siding that is currently on my house once I get around to removing it--if someone doesn't remove it for me first! Yikes.
ReplyDeleteSadly this is nothing new. Unfortunately, with this sucktastic economy this type of theft becomes more prevalent. Just wait until the 2006 budget is put in motion.....
ReplyDeleteYou know, the only way we did get people to stop stealing stuff from the house was to move it to BFE.
ReplyDeleteBFE - Yep, that's pretty much where I live. :)
ReplyDeleteSecond comment - still mamking my way through this.
ReplyDeleteMy copper was stolen when it was under contract. Luckily I got a bid to replace and I ended up making $600 because the bank (foreclosure) came down too far on the price. Also luckily, the jackasses didn't steal the pipes from the upper floors.