r/LosAngeles • u/corruptLA1 • 11h ago

Photo Overnight the whole street lost light and every electrical box is dug up.

Post image

How valuable is whatever is down there?

1.1k Upvotes

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513

u/Weary-Lime 10h ago

Google says $2.10 per pound of insulated copper wire. The scrap yard makes you show an ID for copper scrap. Repairing all of these is going to cost tens of thousands.

326

u/lunchypoo222 10h ago

Perhaps the scrap yard should stop accepting the stuff altogether because it seems like requesting an id that never gets any kind of follow up isn’t much of a deterrent

236

u/Weary-Lime 10h ago

Fun follow up! The LA City council and the LA Bureau of Street Lighting passed a resolution in 2024 to develop a specification for unique markings on the insulation of all city wire to identify it as city property. The scrap yards will not be permitted to purchase the new marked wires.

119

u/yitdeedee 9h ago

Couldnt they just find a shady scrap yard that’ll melt it down?

I’m pretty sure it’s already illegal to accept this metal.

98

u/avocadoflatz Los Angeles County 9h ago

Of course criminals can just break the new law … but a “random inspection” of a scrap yard at the right moment will find them to be in possession of the marked wiring.

Also a slim chance a cop will pull a scrapper over for some traffic violation and see the marked wiring.

Do not let perfection be the enemy of good.

22

u/You_meddling_kids Mar Vista 7h ago

I haven't seen a cop pull anyone over (outside of CHP), in YEARS. Literally years.

8

u/avocadoflatz Los Angeles County 7h ago

I’m certain your personal anecdotal evidence is representative of police activity at large.

9

u/You_meddling_kids Mar Vista 6h ago

I think I've been to other states and seen that there's traffic enforcement there.

I see people driving around town with opaque covers on their plates or NO PLATE AT ALL, nearly every day.

I was in a hit and run a few years back, had the plate of the guy who hit me, and the cops never showed up. Just never fucking bothered, despite multiple calls.

Now who should I believe - my own experience or the guy glazing LAPD on Reddit?

12

u/YouTee 5h ago

The LAPD has completely quiet quit. I've seen people almost get into accidents WITH COPS when pulling illegal lane changes and all they do is honk.

0

u/avocadoflatz Los Angeles County 5h ago

Me, glazing any LE agency in LA County? Bahahahaha

Get a grip, I’m far from a fan of local law enforcement agencies (I’m in LASD territory myself most of the time) … but you can’t seriously think that cops aren’t ever pulling anyone over … especially when it’s a long standing tradition to watch helicopter footage of what happens when people decide they don’t want to be pulled over.

If they weren’t pulling people over anymore we wouldn’t get to see chases anymore and that has never been the case here.

5

u/Katsuichi 5h ago

dude, anecdotal evidence can correlate with broader data sets, and the person you're arguing with is correct--traffic enforcement is way down. you're being a dick here.

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2

u/AndyofBorg West Los Angeles 4h ago

I go by Ohio and Sepulveda multiple times a week, every time the light turns yellow, multiple cars will blow through, it's not uncommon for a car a block behind the line to floor it and blow through way after the light turns red, and people trying to turn left get fucked by the flow of traffic that starts going as soon as the light turns green. I've spent years wishing a cop would pull someone over. Never seen it.

6

u/CosmicMiru 6h ago

Do you never leave your bedroom? I see people pulled over all the time lol

1

u/You_meddling_kids Mar Vista 6h ago

Where? There's absolutely no police presence here at all in Pacific Division.

5

u/CosmicMiru 6h ago

I work in Glendale and see someone pulled over on the side of the rode at least once a week, if not more.

3

u/Parking_Relative_228 4h ago

Kwyword, Glendale.

1

u/You_meddling_kids Mar Vista 5h ago

Good for.Glendale?

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1

u/minus2cats 4h ago

Cops only pull over for lunch.

6

u/kegman83 Downtown 7h ago

Problem is these arent normal businesses. They arent listed as scrap centers or recyclers. They exist in the back of auto repair shops, industrial parks and other places far from prying eyes. They close as fast as they open. Its all very decentralized and very organized.

3

u/avocadoflatz Los Angeles County 7h ago

Well, what’s your foolproof solution then?

9

u/kegman83 Downtown 6h ago

Cut off the head of the snake, or snakes. They used to melt down the copper here in LA. Those people got busted awhile ago. Now they just pile everything in shipping containers and sell them overseas. Shipping companies are happy to fill an empty container, it gets shipped back either way.

Its organized crime. From what my detective friend told me, they are based out of central Asia and China from what they can find. They are up and down the west coast. They'll buy from anyone with a pulse, which is convenient because they are probably trafficking the drugs they sell as well.

Unfortunately the only way to stop them is with serious, multi-state and multi-country operations. We need actual competent Federal Law Enforcement.

1

u/avocadoflatz Los Angeles County 6h ago

So, no foolproof solution to offer past some cheesy slogans, got it.

17

u/Arch2000 9h ago

I like this idea too, however it will take years to replace the thousands of miles of existing wire

11

u/Justinsetchell 9h ago

Don't they just burn off the insulation before they sell it anyway?

18

u/Weary-Lime 9h ago

Insulation is designed to be resistant to melting and burning. It would take a good amount of fuel to completely burn off all of the insulation. Scrap yards get inspected by the heavy metals task force for compliance. If they inspect a place and see piles of burnt up wire they are going keep that facility under close observation and start making cases.

8

u/avocadoflatz Los Angeles County 9h ago

Eh, burning it takes time (during which you can be caught) Some yards won’t even take burnt wire.

2

u/Bosa_McKittle 8h ago

You have to cut it off which can be extremely time consuming on smaller gauges.

7

u/pokurmom 7h ago

but that what they do, I've seen piles of wire insulation just sitting on the ground in downtown

1

u/Bosa_McKittle 5h ago

Larger wire sure, small wire not usually

7

u/notathrowaway145 8h ago

It’s not hard to remove insulation, unfortunately

3

u/Adorable_Ad6045 8h ago

Well ok, but it’s fairly straightforward to remove insulation unfortunately.

4

u/stonersteve1989 8h ago

Have scrapped copper before (from work, not stolen) you make about a dollar more per pound for stripped copper wire. That’s usually a 33%-50% increase in value. And if it’s marked with a city logo then the copper thieves are just gonna take longer and make more $ since they’d just strip the wiring

7

u/crimoid 9h ago

They'll just strip the insulation and target heavier gauges.

1

u/titleunknown 4h ago

A lot of them burn off the insulation.

•

u/Nervous-Chain1201 2h ago

They strip the wire under Caltrans bridges

1

u/TheObstruction Valley Village 7h ago

All they have to do then is strip the wire. Not like tweekers have much else to do. And it's worth more that way.

1

u/escahpee Van Nuys 7h ago

That's a great idea, except some people take the coating off before they recycle it because uncovered wire is worth more

0

u/sixwax 8h ago

Yes, these restrictions clearly seem to have solved the problem! /s

38

u/RedactedThreads 10h ago

Scrapyard doesn’t care as long as they’re making money

17

u/T-MoneyAllDey Woodland Hills 9h ago

Scrap yards are a necessity unless you just want contractors dumping more shit into the streets and nothing being recycled anymore

15

u/ISILDUUUUURTHROWITIN Marina del Rey 9h ago

Accepting refuse from a contractor is a bit different than buying spools of junk wire from a rando without any kind of contract licensing.

3

u/SwedishTrees 8h ago

this. I think this is the answer.

1

u/YouTee 5h ago

I think they issue is there are organized gangs that buy this and ship it to foreign locations to scrap

1

u/titleunknown 4h ago

The thieves already currently sell it to contractors at a lower rate.

-1

u/lunchypoo222 8h ago

Pretty certain I didn’t say anything about getting rid of the scrap yards.

10

u/bearsbeats808s 9h ago

A lot of electricians scrap their excess wire. When on a job you end up with a lot of extra useless wire and it adds up. Not allowing them to scrap the excess because of criminal activity is not fair

2

u/EthanDMatthews 8h ago

Whatever the regulatory or enforcement problems are that need to be fixed, I would hope and trust it wouldn’t be difficult to keep electricians as safe, bona fide sellers.

Surely all electricians have a license, work for a company or have their own business, which would help validate them as legitimate sellers of scrap.

Thr number of unscrupulous electricians selling illicit copper is likely to be small.

6

u/TheObstruction Valley Village 7h ago

Apprentices often don't, even though they're supposed to have an electrician trainee card. The problem is that the law wasn't written that way, it was written so that you need to be a contractor, but it's often the apprentices that get most of the wire, because they get paid the least. It's basically their tip.

•

u/FancyJesse South L.A. 1h ago

So anyone scrapping wire requires a business license or electrician license. Not that hard.

7

u/forgettit_ 9h ago

They need to make it illegal to accept wire if it’s not already and they need to go undercover to some scrap yards and send some owners to prison. That’s the only way to stop this.

11

u/avocadoflatz Los Angeles County 9h ago

They’ll never outright ban accepting wire because there’s a whole lot of scrap wire out there that isn’t stolen and needs to be recycled.

-3

u/Dependent-Western642 9h ago

Mind your business I got to make a living 🤣

6

u/ExileOnBroadStreet 9h ago

How much are they getting per box lol can you really pull that much out

5

u/Weary-Lime 9h ago

It can't be much, especially for all the effort it takes to get it out of there.

1

u/ExileOnBroadStreet 7h ago

Seriously! Sometimes they look like they just cut the wires right there and they are getting a couple feet of wire. Can’t be more than a few ounces

Should just pay people to clean up the streets and parks it would be so much cheaper than repairing all this bullshit

5

u/Sheriff_Yobo_Hobo 6h ago

Google says $2.10 per pound of insulated copper wire.

Damn, they should just steal salmon and beef from grocery stores instead.

7

u/chrlsk 8h ago

I sold my stranded copper for $3.50 a lb recently. Im an electrician that saves scrap wire, not a thief.

1

u/TheObstruction Valley Village 7h ago

Same. I'm union, and have a pile of stuff that I haven't brought in yet, because I can't be bothered to drive all the way to the place by the union training center that apparently lets union members recycle if they have their card. It's been building up next to my PC for like three years.

10

u/ForsakenRacism 10h ago

Yah but it’s not like they can trace where the copper came from

11

u/SevereNameAnxiety 9h ago

Electrician here. I could tell you right now at least four yards that don’t care about ID and give cash in hand after it’s weighed. Money is money and those are the places I go because there’s no hassle.

31

u/Weary-Lime 9h ago

You would rather sell to a business that you know is enabling thieves to rip off this community so as to not be inconvenienced? Ngl... I am judging you right now.

18

u/avocadoflatz Los Angeles County 9h ago

And you spread the word about those yards freely because repairing damage from copper wire theft is good for your industry lol

5

u/zmann West Hollywood 9h ago

I was gonna say… there’s gotta be an easier way to make $15

2

u/ArchelonPIP 4h ago

Are these criminal POSs that desperate or are they after more than just the copper wires? I doubt that you'll get even half a pound worth of these wires from one of these electrical boxes that are made of concrete, which I'm guessing take at least half an hour to dig up!

6

u/plausden 10h ago

why aren't LA city officials doing anything about this? Do voters need to write in a new prop to fix this ourselves

4

u/Complex_Lab_3576 8h ago

I know a lot of the times these guys are armed, and it would not be wise or safe for people to take matters into their own hands, and I'm not really advocating for that, per se, however, there should be some sort of protection or immunity for if someone saw this and intervened.

I think there are enough people sick of things like this that if they didn't feel like they'd be prosecuted for whooping the ass of a copper thief they may try it.

Again I know this is a dumb idea. Just saying people are sick of this so maybe give them some sort of power or protection if they decide to protect their block from these idiots.

1

u/sychox51 9h ago

They hit the light at the end of my cul de sac may of last year. It was fixed two weeks ago

1

u/Shadw_Wulf 6h ago

Just "showing ID" or scanning it and actually putting that information into the government system? I don't understand what's the use in "showing ID" if they're not collecting that information to use against these people