Forwarded to me by an associate.

And now I begin to understand why some places are surrounded by high razor-wire-topped fences. It's not that they hate railfans......

Business In Jeopardy
Jeffrey Alderton
Cumberland Times-News (12/20/2007)


* RIDGELEY, W.Va. - For the second time in two years, the Western
Maryland Scenic Railroad has become a victim of theft - a recurring
crime that is threatening the very existence of the highly-popular local
tourism draw.
"We have to find out who is doing this because, if we don't, they could
actually put us out of business," said Frank Fowler, the scenic
railroad's general superintendent, concerning the theft of $50,000 worth
of special cable copper from five rail cars parked near the shops.
The thefts occurred sometime after Sunday when the scenic railroad made
its final run of the season to the Frostburg Depot before returning to
its shops and yard in Ridgeley to park the steam engine and cars for the
winter.
"The next run is in May. Whoever did this waited until the end of the
season. It's somebody that has knowledge of our operation since they
waited until the end of the season," said Fowler, who is offering a
$5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone
responsible for the theft.
The wiring theft was discovered Tuesday as scenic railroad workers were
moving cars for maintenance work.
The incident marked the second time since late last year that copper
wiring has been removed from scenic rail cars in Ridgeley.
"They took wiring from three cars last winter. We didn't discover it
right away so we don't know if they committed that crime at the end of
the season like they did this time," said Fowler, noting no arrests were
made in the previous theft case.
Ridgeley Police Chief Michael Miller said "persons of interest" have
been developed for questioning in the case.
"Obviously, this investigation is in the beginning stages. We are
looking at evidence and determining which avenue we want to take," said
Miller.
The shop buildings apparently were not entered when thieves stole the
high-performance wiring that is used for heating, lighting and air
conditioning of the cars.
Fowler also said the wiring theft came at the end of a "good finish"
for our season.
"We carried over 34,000 passengers this year. But we need to find out
who is doing these thefts and make sure they are punished," said Fowler,
who became superintendent of the railroad last May.
Anyone wishing to provide anonymous information may do so by calling
1-800-TRAIN-50 or the Allegany/ Mineral County Crime Solvers at (301)
722-4300.
Information also may be provided to Ridgeley Police at (304) 738-9400
or to the Mineral County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland
Security at (304) 788-4106.

It's interesting to see how "Nationwide" this problem is. Out here in Washington State I manage a Sand & Gravel operation that has been hit by copper thieves more times than I can count. Every single time we have actually caught someone, it has been a meth addict, no exceptions.
The problem is, as much as you would like to blame the drug, and we certainly do, the real guilt lies with the scrap metal dealers who provide a market for it where no questions are asked.
The State is now trying to pass some legislation to hold them (the"metal recyclers") responsible, and hopefully the plan will work, but it seems to me if there was any honesty involved whatsoever, when someone who weighs 90 pounds and has no teeth and scabs all over their face and arms is sitting at your gate when you open with a full piece of crap pickup truck load of commercial-grade heavy gauge copper wire, that you might be inclined to do the right thing. My sympathy goes out to the crew at WMSR, who having dealt with this before know that it's not just the loss of the wire, but the cost of installation in time and labor.
Hopefully someone will come up with a solution soon.

Full of frustration, Dave

Someone in law enforcement was just telling me that theft of metal product, mostly copper is driving them nuts. He stated that as the economy gets worse this will too.

One victim told him if he could he would run 220volts through all his exposed copper!

One of the retail locations I manage had copper stolen from the fuel tank behind the store. The fella replacing the tubing had the job half done, went to buy a fitting, came back... No copper.

I guess what I am saying is that is not just railroads having issues.

Ah....a copper cable caper........

dave

I had the pleasure of seeing a beautifully restored railroad structure in the northeast this year. It used to be a junkie den, and is now quite the show piece externally, right down to all the copper downspouts.

The restoration crew seemed to be divided over using the real thing or not since copper theft has become such an issue.

I guess it is true if the economy tanks and metals stay high, this could be a nightmare. Lets hope we don't find out.

Rob

Well, it's hit the Midwest, also. Last year, when I was still at the Huckleberry, one of our local policeman caught a truck with about 1/2 mile of electric cable. He called the parks - sure enough, it was the cable supplying electricity to our displays along the track...

Even before the latest flush down the toilet of the Real Estate market new home builders were not installing the outside coils/unit until the house was occupied. As fast as they were installed in empty units they were stolen.

It’s not just copper. Hopefully by the end of April I’ll be able to write an article about our loss of 1 mile of rail. (yes both rails for 1 mile)2 years and allot of work later it’s finally going to court. They tried their plea bargain but both we and the prosecutor want to go for the maximum including restitution. We hope to put this guy out of business all together so it will make it hard for him to do this again, when he get’s out of prison.
On top of this as I mentioned on here a few days ago we again had a set of horns ripped off.

Scenic Railroads and Museums of the future will be virtual. The real thing will be behind barbed wire and full of hungry junk yard dogs. Can you imagine, as I think Mr. Siffert knows, what the insurance companies would say if you told them you want to insure your actual rails and some horns?
In some countries we might called backwards if you see a person walking around without a hand you knew he was a thief. I guess in America we would make the thief wear a GeoPositional Watch and have it on America's Most Wanted.

In Oakland CA they're even stealing aluminum guard rails off freeway overpasses. The local media broadcast appeals saying that Caltrans does not do that kind of work at night, and to please call police if you see someone doing it.

One would think that someone coming into a scrapyard with sections of guardrail would be suspect, but apparently the scrappers don't mind. They just pay cash and send the stuff to China.

When riding the Grand Canyon RR this summer, they told us that while they were putting the tracks back into service in the 80s, someone tried to make off with almost a mile of track!
If you do a search for "Copper theft" you'll find news stories from all over the country. My favorite was the guy in New Miami Ohio who tried to steal energized power cables! Folks heard the scream and he paid the ultimate price for copper. Needless to say, few people felt much sympathy for him. As for the scrap dealers, this is what a free society is all about. You can't easily turn someone away because you think they MIGHT be a meth addict, because they could sue you right out of business for some form of discrimination if they wanted to. Signs that state "we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" don't really hold well in court, as a good friend of mine found out a few years ago. The laws can actually be to the benefit of the scrap handlers in one way, as they can then turn away people,. Using the laws to back up the decision. There's a scrap dealer close to where I live (I'm in WA state) and he tells me all the time about the folks he wonders about, yet fears being sued. He's actually in support of the laws requiring contact info on people selling industrial-grade scrap.
4449's crew had to deal with this insanity recently as well: http://www.sp4449.com/03photos/menatwor ... index.html

The new rules the State wants to put into effect would require the "seller" to provide a point of origin for the material, real or acceptable I.D. and instead of cash on the barrelhead, they would have a check mailed to an actual address...a cunning ploy by the authorities I must say. The only problem is, how do you enforce it? If you have a metal recycler who is paying cash for copper or aluminum of obviously questionable ownership, will a new law make him stop? I think you'll have to see a drastic drop in scrap prices to make the "easy money" appeal go away.

Cheers, Dave

Similar statutes are being considered here. Not certain how effective they'd be though as our law enforcement agencies are taxed for manpower. I suppose that the volunteer police patrols could do the reports and keep an eye out for the thieves.

We've had our problems down at the Old Pueblo Trolley storage yard this past year. Every time we go by there, another hole's been cut in the fence. Get it patched and another hole is found the next week. The business district we're in got heavily tagged by graffiti punks, so now the merchants are calling for cctv to be put in-something they wanted long ago. The contractors working on the interstate widening project have reported theft of cable from the lighting towers that they have had to take down for the work.

Optimist that I usually am, I don't see a good ending to this in sight. Bad economy turning worse with no relief in sight.

Guardrails? Hell, in Baltimore and Washington DC they're stealing WHOLE light poles and fixtures! Not even just the ones that get knocked down in accidents--they're stealing the poles outright in the middle of the night!

From 2003 I think someone may have posted this at the time but it seemed topical.


From BBC News. 2 miles of track stolen.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2673629.stm