Cable theft

nickblake · Oct 17, 2011

Have just been and looked at a property as friends of mine a buying it it is a large industrial unit with an incomming supply cable around the 240 mm well was , 6 70mm cables 4 185mm smallest cable is a 6mm when added up there was about 1000 meters of armour and its all been nicked , the scaryiest thing is it was hacked off with a hacksaw when still live the main consumer unit had the cables hacked off within the board and loads of black marks over the terminals when it shorted unbeliveable they were not killed when they were doing it all the cables were 3 phase with main fuses of 400 amps ,all the ceilings have been ripped down and damaged beyond repair from what was a perfectly good building to a wreck estimates for repair is around £40.000 and £140,000 for repair of the rest of the damagethats just for the electrical side shame they were not killed thats all i can say

nickblake · Oct 17, 2011

I am hoping to get some pictures of the site i was on especially the hack saw with the blown handle the latest switched on guide from the ESC has an article about a prosicution high lighting the dangers of working live , think it should be nicking cable live http://www.esc.org.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/public/switched_on/Switched_On_Issue_22.pdf page 11

some other intresting stuff in this edition too

midgetman · Oct 17, 2011

Did he die?

VoltzElectrical · Oct 17, 2011

midgetman said:
Did he die?

check ur eyeballs dude, his HEAD was on FIRE! I didn't think this could happen from a belt u are blown clear from that's why I thought he must still be connected, cos otherwise he reached SERIOUS temperatures in fractions of a second. Scary

mogga · Oct 17, 2011

one of the other guys in the firm I work for was sent to a clients unused industrial unit to turn the power on to a smallish unit within the big unit he arrived onsite opened the door and phoned the clients FM guy to come down Toot Suite 1no 24way mccb panel parallell 400 incommers That was all that was there Every submain DB breakers every circuit light socket all stripped out only thing left in the unit was Armour pvc from the sub mains and the conduit from sub circuits Every bit of plumbing stripped out NOT Ripped out but methodicaly stripped Whan police were called they said they had seen workers there a few weeks before and assumed they were working there as they guys even went to snack bar beside the unit PURE BrassNeck( Pun ) it was like a military opperation
they have decided NOT to install anything untill unit is either sold or let in which case it will be put to the tenant as to install supplies

electromonkey · Oct 17, 2011

If you want to see the results of copper theft when the perpetrators don't get away with "their" stolen goods or with their lives for that matter then pop in to Google "Dallas copper bandits" *WARNING* This is not for the faint hearted hence why I have not attached the link!

GLENNSPARK · Oct 17, 2011

VoltzElectrical said:
check ur eyeballs dude, his HEAD was on FIRE! I didn't think this could happen from a belt u are blown clear from that's why I thought he must still be connected, cos otherwise he reached SERIOUS temperatures in fractions of a second. Scary

The fault current this man recieved basicly just crisped him instantly...no chance for muscle reaction.....

Darkwood · Oct 18, 2011

people forget that fuse wire reaches a temperature high enough to melt copper, why are people supprised by the damage it can do when you complete the circuit with a human body.

Darkwood · Oct 18, 2011

people forget that fuse wire during short circuit reaches a temperature high enough to melt copper steel etc so why are people supprised by the damage it can do when you complete the circuit with a human body.

Darkwood · Oct 18, 2011

ooops edit post has changed it posts both versions :cry_smile:

Rockingit · Oct 18, 2011

Well, I'm about to lay a whole load of SWA's on site, above ground as the haven't done the trenches yet, in a place about a mile from anyone in the woods, that's been raided before..... let's see how long that lot stays on site. At least I'll be able to charge more labour time when it needs replacing.

Rockingit · Oct 18, 2011

Incidentally, did anyone watch that series My Gypsy Wedding?

mogga · Oct 18, 2011

we did a footpath 12 cols fittings 1000mtr 16mm split concentric in ducting pulled cables in planted poles one day returned to find blank canvas at least they left the ducting

2 days later 6 sparks 10 laberours 6 jagers of concrete 2 security gaurds Fitted connected and working security gaurds kept an eye till concterte was set All in All we did this at 20 odd locations where we were puting poles in dark patches on footpaths NO chance these poles are coming out with out a HiAb as holes dug wete 2mtrx2mtrx2mtr planted poles ducted into poles incase of rewire needed n concterted them in
Another instance where first n second fix were done same day was renewing overhead 6mms n replacing with 16mm solid drawn 500mtr runs covering 6 poles first time we fitted cables returned next day to see no cable in the air just tails hanging from tensioners at each end gaffer decided double men get it banged out and lit so if they did decide to return at least they would get plated ( hopefully)