Metal Prices Are Soaring. So Is Metal Theft

A few years ago, I was an inventory manager at an electrical contracting shop — we had tens of thousands of dollars just in copper wire.

One morning, I arrived to a burglar attempting to steal from our supply house. I performed a citizen's arrest (do not recommend)[1] with some of the other workers, but was the only employee called in to the perpetrator's trialS as I was "the boss" and was the one who bound him physically (multiple wastes of time, the guy "knew how to play the court system").

[1] In the future, I will not call the police.

Stealing copper cables from electricity posts is common throughout much of the world. Here's an example[1] robbery. It usually amounts to a gain of a few days' wages for the thief, and a loss of half a day's electricity for the neighborhood.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG8Uju1JOkY

I was in the HVAC industry throughout the 2000's. Metal thieves generated quite a bit of business for us. Thieves irreparably saw up condenser units to take the heat exchangers (copper tubing + aluminum fins). I can only imagine how much R22 (GWP of 1810) was released into the atmosphere.

They'd also target our trucks to get any stored wire, tubing, fittings, or power tools they could get their hands on.

That's the late USSR degeneration syndrome.

Decrease in male life expectancy, opioid epidemic and now also metal theft.

Tangentially related, but I was at my local Home Depot, buying a grounding rod. It seemed like an amazing deal -- 5/8", 8 ft for $19.60. Weighing it, it's 6.6 lbs.

Scrap prices according to the web are $3 to $3.30 for that quality of copper. Which means I could potentially be making $2 / rod buying them and selling them to the scrap yard...

It makes me wonder if the Home Depot prices are just lagging the market. Maybe I should stock up.

Scrap metal prices are nowhere near the peaks they hit in 2007.