WHAT ELSE GETS PINCHED
I did an article about car theft and hijackings the other day with a few stats but I thought I would list some things that you wouldn't think would be on a list for theft. With very little or no policing in South Africa it is not that surprising. When one of your key services is so poor then this sort of thing happens.
The picture below shows recovered cables.
Phone lines and electricity lines are cut regularly and stolen. These are then melted for the copper and sold to scrap yards. This happens regularly and haven't got enough fingers to count how many times it has happened over the last few years.
This was a traffic light at one point. Everything has gone.The one below they were obviously disturbed as they left it behind.
Traffic lights are ripped up and sold for scrap. The control box that work the signals are stolen and re sold back to the road department. The one evening I was working late and heard a noise and it sounded like an angle grinder. It was an angle grinder and the traffic lights had been cut down and pinched.
Road barriers on the side of the freeway start disappearing and you will notice huge sections missing. Same story taken for scrap metal. Man hole covers from roads just vanish and they don't care if it causes an accident. Whilst driving in certain areas you need eyes literally on the road as those missing covers can seriously damage the car.
Railway lines in industrial areas that used to transport freight were there and now have totally disappeared. Those tracks are not small and light either so someone must have seen something. The metal links that hold the rails to the tracks have also started disappearing.
As I said nothing is sacred and what they are doing is stripping the essentials that run every day life. Crime is rampant and it is not down to only hijackings, house burglaries, murders but the actually things that make cities and towns tick. With poor or no policing what does everyone expect.
That's a sorry sight indeed. Former communist eastern Europe can be pretty bad but that's something else. If this thing is allowed to continue, there will be nothing left of modernity. How are 50 million people going to live on stolen farms they can't run when the cities have been turned into rubble? By hunting for small prey like our cat?
Yes they don't care. The next story is one to read though as I forgot about this one. I found it funny but you guys will be shocked.
Now you see why I was surprised that you still have old antennae towers around.
Thats unreal. There must be major problems if people go to that much effort to melt copper.
There are major problems and they see it as easy money. We are so happy to have fiber now. Before this companies had lines go down from theft regularly. It seems it is easier to steal than to work. Wish they bought the death penalty back or more severe sentences. Some guys were caught this week for robbing money in transit vans. Most of them were out on bail so the issue is with the courts. These guys commit armed robbery and get bail. harsher systems need to be put in place.
That is rather horrifying... Is it that there's no money to fund policing, or that their priorities are just backwards? Very odd items but I guess they make sense if someone is buying them....
Posted using Partiko Android
Hi eon. Not really odd items. They steal the cables and burn them extracting the copper wire. it is known in the trade as burnt copper. The other items are all metal so sold to scrap dealers for cash. They have no sense of destruction and they see it as ready money. Even your numbers on your house wall etc are stolen.
The police are corrupt and are part of the problem.
sir cryptoandcoffee! oh my gosh man, what a shame! and if it keeps up at this rate what will be left in a few years? You still have some options to move right? If it becomes intolerable?