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Metal Theft Works of Art


Frederick

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/dec/20/barbara-hepworth-sculpture-park-stolen

This sort of thing is is getting worse ... Instead of special metal theft Police Units being created ... I would have thought that the introduction of  a ban on all scrap metal dealers taking in bronze and copper ....with a prison sentence for people found in the yard with any would stop it overnight  .

Plummers and those who work with these metals should have to work  with specialist dealers licenced to  handle  these metals only ...And  to arrange they  collect  scrap from their premises . .

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[quote user="Frederick"]http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/dec/20/barbara-hepworth-sculpture-park-stolen

This sort of thing is is getting worse ... Instead of special metal theft Police Units being created ... I would have thought that the introduction of  a ban on all scrap metal dealers taking in bronze and copper ....[/quote]

That would only increase pressure on cast iron and other metals, I frequently have to replace fire hydrant covers and drain gratings/ tree guards.

 

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On top of what Théière

says Fredericks suggestion for plumbers etc. will only inconvenience the honest plus of course the cost of the now obligatory collection will sky rocket and you'll probably end up paying to have it taken away.

The problem with introducing bans or other stringent rules is that to be effective they have to be policed and someone has to pay for that. Also, with the sort of people you are dealing with it, it will be next to impossible to keep up let alone ahead of the game.

I have one answer though:

If these scumbags are so fond of their metal I can help them out with a

little bit of lead - inserted with explosive force just behind the right

ear !

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The BBC sent a reporter with a white van with some BT cable in it that BT had given them. They went to one scrap yard and the bod there told them that he could not take it as it had BT on it. He advised them to burn off the casing and then come back with just the copper!

They visited a number of other dealers who were willing to take what had obviously stolen including street signs that Westminster council had given them.

 

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One only has to google 'Power cable stolen' to see how wide spread this is. The most shameful one was the loss of power to Llandough Hospital which meant over 80 operations were canceled let alone loss of use of much of the equipment required by A and E. These 'people' (I use the word lightly) obviously have no shame.

Apart from what unpleasant things we would like to do with these people what can we really do. Perhaps all dealers need to keep an official book given to them by the government and people have to supply some form of ID when taking stuff there which has to be written in the book. This is another example of where national ID cards would help. Yes I know it won't stop it completely but it would dramatically reduce it. Surely with regards to the dealers this is 'receiving stolen property' which has a prison sentence range of 14 years. Perhaps giving the full 14 years and confiscating their yard and money may also help to deter others.

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2 hours late for work today. Somebody managed to nick the HT lines from the RER tracks. Someone was very brave/desperate/stupid.

Last week the A86 was gridlocked for most the day, as somebody had nicked the traffic control cables. Not heard of artworks being nicked, but the plaques off war memorials, and the ironwork from graveyards disappear every night round Paris.

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