Raped curbside sets
 

So this is the new thing... I am seeing it all over LA. on every street. Every sense digital there have been crt sets everywhere on the streets, now someone is busting every single one open and stripping them. They take everything including the crt neck.
I guess its better than the whole thing going to the dumb but this is just messy.

I grabbed the mirror for my convergence needs
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This action is nothing new around here. It's really bad at the county green boxes (which are about to be done away with in favor of curbside pick-up). Most of what I've seen destroyed was '80's and later crap; but, I did see the busted remains of one '50's Zenith console.

This older guy that I know called me from his cell phone to say there was a '50's Zenith B&W console at the dump and it looked decent. He had no help and was in his car. Otherwise, he would have brought it to me. I rushed over to the dump and by the time I arrived, all that was left was a busted cabinet and some broken glass from the CRT.

In the early '90's, I would often bring home 3 or 4 TV's at a time when I'd visit the dump. Then, the "copper grabbers" got real active and I swear all they do is make the rounds from dump to dump seeing what they can destroy.

A friend of mine, who used to have a TV shop, would often put junk TV's outside for the garbage. More than a few times, he'd hear noise behind the shop only to find someone about to swing the hammer or proceeding to dismantle the set for the chassis. He would always tell them, "Either you take the whole set or you take none of it because you're not leaving a busted mess for me to have to clean up"

I see that all the time too. They're going for the copper in the yoke.

A lot of these TV's that are being destroyed probably worked just fine or could have easily been fixed. It used to burn me up, back when used TVs were still a somewhat hot item, to see a nice set that I could have gotten good money for had some idiot not busted it to pieces.

Pretty funny that there's a packet of smokes in one of those gutted BPC sets...

Copper thieves strike again! They'll take anything made of copper, illegal or legal....kind of crazy how bad it's gotten...

Never heard one say it that way:thmbsp::D

We have them here too, I call 'em the "copper smashers" and boy do they make a mess. I can't wait until I catch one smashing a tv in front of my house.
They won't be happy..:no: I just missed one a while back and he was lucky I wasn't around with a bat. My house sits very close to the road so I get more pissed than most about this kind of stuff. That and I'm sick of all the kenosha losers.

Although the copper prices have gone down, several enterprising folks here in Norfolk make quite a bit from TV and copper scrapping - we're talking about 400-600 dollars a week! One gent I met at the metals place gets every bit of copper out of a TV - chassis, yoke and degaussing coil. We discussed the "best" sets to scrap - he agreed that Sony puts the most copper in sets. He also likes the projection jobs - easy to gut on the curb.

He hooked me up with an Admiral black and white 15" tube portable - not much in the way of copper, or tubes - it was missing all but the RF amp tube in the tuner.

What we see as a missed opportunity, he sees as income.

Me, I sell copper from BPC sets and the occasional extension cord I find when trash pickin' - but most of my metals are aluminum chassis parts from gutted test and computer equipment and aluminum cans from my Diet Coke addiction. :beer:

Cheers,

A while back, we had a serious issue with copper grabbers stealing the copper pipes and wiring from homes and other buildings that were under construction (and some that were already built). It got so bad that they passed a law where the only way you can sell copper at the junkyard is to show a valid ID and valid car tag. I think they also take your picture and take down other information. Once it's been determined that your copper was obtained legally, the scrap yard will mail you a check. Otherwise, law enforcement will come haul your butt to the pokey.

I'd tell you to move to Mississippi; but, we probably have just as many losers down here.

About 2 weeks ago, I stuck a dud 2003 HP computer monitor out on the curb. Some guy pulled up in a clunker Cadillac and picked it up. He wouldn't have wanted to face the wrath of my Mother had she looked out and caught him smashing it. We have enough problems with garbage blowing in our yard from all the idiots in the neighborhood who don't have sense enough to tie up a trash bag.

There is one guy that I call when I have a load of crap and he comes and haules it off and acts like he's glad to get the crap. I told him the kind of stuff I was looking for and he said he'd save any that he found. So far, nothing has surfaced.

Here too! Here, no copper wire bigger than 4-ought (0000 gauge) can be sold without a business registration. Keeps the utility workers legit. They also get your drivers license info when selling. But they pay cash...

This is so sick and a sign of the times. Druggies and other useless will do what they can (besides getting a job) to support their habit. Used to be that if we found some electronic gear on the street we would try to fix it. I got several TV's that way that we used for years. If something turned out to be unfixable, the good parts were stripped out and the rest disposed of properly. Lately they've let the hooligans out of their cages. Here a couple of years ago one cutie got his trying to take down a big copper overhead catenary line. Ditto the geniuses stealing copper out of street lighting. Darwin at work.

I don't condone the thieves, but not everyone scrapping and selling copper is a druggie or useless. I've been the victim of the copper thieves - they stole the copper flashing right off of our church a couple years back. But TVs on the curb are for anyone to take and do as they please, just not right there. I've snagged sets only to find a bad fly, bad CRT or munged tuner that was beyond economical repair - and I happily scrounged the copper and aluminum to sell. If only ferrite had a market!

I guess it's kinda like yard sales - early bird gets the worm.

Oh, sure, legit scrap metal recycling is OK, done it myself. I was just on a rant about druggies and mess makers. If you clean up after yourself I give my seal of approval! In fact, I had a big coil of old used copper pipe with some holes in it , about 60 ft, I think, a couple of years ago, that I got about fifty bucks for. I was amazed.:eek:

It got so bad with copper thieves after Katrina - they were stealing the water pipes before homes were finished and cutting them off at the slab, so a plumber had nothing to hook onto. I know of two houses near me that were sold to the state and torn down rather than restored because of this. Some folks ran Pex through their attics.

There's a decommissioned power generating plant in the city (Market Street power plant) that was (is?) being targeted - the thieves were lowering themselves down into the massive generators with ropes and cutting out the copper with torches mounted on their backs.

This was a big problem here too, at least until last year, there was almost no way to get a TV in one piece, as soon as it was laid on the curb, someone came, smashed the CRT to rob the yoke, and often also mangled the chassis to remove the large wound components.
The fact that i often spotted TVs while riding my horses and had to come back with my car to pick them up made things even worse as they'd often be wrecked by the time i came to pick them up.
I was very lucky in that i saved a really nice Phonola tube B/W before the wreckers got at it.

Luckily this doesn't happen much anymore now, Credit Crunch i guess, and maybe some changes in the copper market.