As all of you likely know by now Lone Oak is presently dealing with a copper thief. At least I haven’t heard yet if the guy’s been caught. I hope, for his own safety, that he has.
Why his safety, you may well wonder. After all the dang fool is a crook who is ripping off folks who can’t really afford to be ripped off. Folks that, frankly, don’t have much, if any thing, more than he does. Folks like the Community Seeds over at the old school house. Seems he destroyed four of the big AC units that were used to keep the building cool enough for classes designed to help local folks get ahead and to run the clothing store. A store where those same folks can find affordable clothing fit to wear to a job interview and to a good job. Not that the loss of those AC units has stopped Community Seeds, it’s just making their work a little less comfortable.
Now, as for the ‘preps’ safety. For one thing I have read some things on Face Book that indicate he just might run into some buck shot at the very least if he attempts to rip off some folks copper. Then there are the small to large dogs that some folks around here have in their yards. Believe me, helping out Peggy in her dog grooming business occasionally has taught me that even small dogs with practically no jaws can still inflect a painful bite that can leave a mark. (Don’t believe me? I’ll show you my thumb.)
Then of course this fool has to deal with the fact that quite often there is electricity running through the copper he is trying to steal. That can give him anything from a painful tickle or nasty jolt all the way to painful burns and even death by electrocution. Yeah, I know, some of you; particularly those he has ripped off already, may feel he deserves nothing less.
This person isn’t out of the woods safety wise even after he has absconded with copper wiring that doesn’t belong to him. Why? Because to sell the stuff for the most cash he has to strip the insulation off of any electrical wiring he has. If you’ve ever tried to do any of your own electrical repair on anything you already know what a tiring mess that can be even with a proper wire stripper. Imagine having perhaps several feet, if not yards of wire to get clean of that insulation. So, a crook I am told, is usually a crook because he is too lazy to work or because he or she is after the big, fast money. The fastest way to get insulation off of copper is to burn it off.
Burning insulation off of copper wire is dangerous in many ways. First off the smoke that comes from the combusting insulation is not something you want to breath. It is one of the reasons fire fighters have to wear those heavy SCBA’s when they fight car fires or go into a burning building. So this criminal can do himself some serious harm if he breaths this smoke. Then the smoke from this burning insulation is rather obvious as it is dark black and easily seen by others. The smell is also a dead giveaway as to what’s going on. That in itself can lead to the fool getting caught. Worse case scenario in this dry weather is that the fire he’s set to clean his ill gotten copper gets away from him. If he’s lucky he gets away but loses his booty as it is confiscated by the police. At worse, the fire he sets can kill him.
So I am left with a simple but confusing question. Why? Why do crooks really do this foolish thing. It seems breaking the law is much more work and involves much more danger than the alternative of getting an education and at least looking for a job or even making a deal with someone to work for food and/or shelter.
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