Had half of an aluminum trench box stolen off my job site the other day. They really are animals, and the scrap yards will scrap their own mothers grave marker without a second thought.

We had a lot of trouble with them after Irene, they were cruising around in their beat to death pickups, grabbing peoples stuff!

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I deal with one guy who's solid. A disabled ex marine. He'll come all the way out here and pick up my scrap. There are some scumbags for sure, but you have to give credit to many of them for the work they do. Times are tough, it's a job that needs to be done.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

Last week a guy was arrested for trying to steal a cattle guard for scrap. He had a truck with a hoist to lift it off the ground, but was caught by police. Then there are the guys with the battery powered cutting tools that go after truck catalytic converters, since the trucks are higher off the ground.

My wife and I scrap on the weekends...but only grab that which is on the curbside, NEVER private property. There's 8 homes that have our number and call us when they have scrap metal for us. There are also 3 small companies that do the same.

We scrap as a side income of a clean out company we own. We have 4 realtors that call use to clean out foreclosed properties. We scrap the metal, trash the trash, and sell the antiques we pick-up. The company has done well in the 6 months we've since we started. From income being paid from the banks, to the revenue from the scrapping and selling of antiques, we've been able to generate just over $20K so far...and the year has yet to end! I've taken to transporting many antiques to SW Ohio to sell there as the willingness to pay a higher price is greater there.

Not all scrappers are guilty of theft...but a high number of them surely are.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

That's an awful lot of work for $20.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

Had a guy just recently steal a parts car that was wheeled outside waiting for another scrapper.

Second time thats happened.

With metal prices what they are, it sure isn't a surprise. Personally took down a pair of rusted out lower control arms, hubs and rotors and they gave me 50 bucks for that.

Just a few months ago, they gave me 50 bucks for an entire van load of metal, not just a few heavy parts. Getting to be big money.

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The scrappers that crack me up are the copper thieves that occasionally get fried trying to steal electric lines.

It depends on how far you can stretch it. LOL

It was supposed to read $20K...it's fixed now.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

I figured.

That sounds like a pretty decent gig for some extra cash!

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

I thought you guys said SCRAPERS.


lol

SCRAPER BIKE - Trunk Boiz (Final Version) - YouTube

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

They had some live fire exercises that were going on in Taiwan, IIRC. Between volleys of fire, kids would run to the target areas and pick up the scrap metal. Not all come back due to unexploded ordinances that suddenly got triggered into being live or if the next volley came crashing down.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Sux, my neighbor mentioned just yesterday, his fuel door on his old Ford PU was open when his wife got home. Thieves are out and about.

My cars are garage kept.

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83 SD

84 CD

I do a lot of auction signs that are made out of aluminum. These signs get used over and over again and get dinged on the edges. About once a week a scrapper will come by and ask if they are scrap, I say NO. I have started keeping them inside my shop now.

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For the Saved, this world is the worst it will ever get.
For the unSaved, this world is the best it will ever get.

Clk's Ebay Stuff BUY SOMETHING NOW!!!

Theres a professional team of scrappers that are riping copper wire off of highend restuarants and such around the north side of Houston ,they go for highend electrical users ,restuarants are the no 1 choice.The hit the roof or get to the back and begin their destruction.$2k to 3 k is what was estimated at the small corner store down from my job.

It's a problem everywhere. While I'm not one for "bigger government," it sure seems like if ever there were a sector to more rigorously regulate, it would be the scrap metal businesses. If those folks weren't buying (or were held accountable for buying stolen property), there'd be no market for the stuff. Sure, it would be hard to prove one way or another is everything that came in were stolen, but much of it is pretty obvious. I talked to a scrap business owner about this once. He said he could pretty easily tell who was hauling in stolen materials.

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1992 300D 2.5T
1980 Euro 300D (sadly, sold)
1998 Jetta TDI, 132K "Rudy"
1974 Triumph TR6
1999 Saab 9-5 wagon (wife's)