The lazy man works twice as hard

Yesterday was supposed to be a Very Good Day. OnCor was out on what was supposed to be their last trip, they were going to install the meter and bingo bango, we would have electricity. Unfortunately when they got to the pole to attach the meter they found this:

Someone broke the pipe so they could get the copper from the electrical wires in my house. :(

I did some research on this because you hear about copper thieves all the time. Did you know they had to ban the exportation of pennies and nickles because the pennies are worth 1.12 cents and 6.99 cents respectively? They were actually afraid people would melt coins for more cash. Can you imagine how much effort it would take to melt enough pennies to make this worth while?

How much wire does it take to make a pound of copper?

12 gauge copper, commonly used in homes, takes 50 feet of wire to make a pound.  How much money does this industrious copper thief make when they turn in the pound of copper? As of May 7, a whopping $3.78 cents. Seriously. And the next most common size, 14 gauge, takes EIGHTY feet.

That's if it's bright and shiny and not coated in plastic insulators. If it's coated wire then you get even less, or you have to strip the wires either manually or burn them off. Either way it's twice as much effort. You also have to take into account that most metal scrap yards don't pay the full value of the copper because they need to make a profit on it too so it takes even more to get that $4.00.

Why don't these people just get a job? Heck, cleaning someone's house will get you $10/hour AT LEAST and that's less effort than trying to steal copper. (Not even mentioning jail time, or risk of death if the wire you're stealing has an electrical current going through it.)

The world may never know.

I'll find out today how much their foray into copper collection is going to cost me.