7 ms·

In my little corner of heaven we get meth heads tying grappling chains to their trucks in order to yank down live power lines to sell for the copper. I have no

by daoboy 1y ago

In my little corner of heaven we get meth heads tying grappling chains to their trucks in order to yank down live power lines to sell for the copper. I have no idea how none of them have died yet, as frequently as this seems to occur.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
stavros 1y ago
How do you know they haven't?
- daoboy 1y ago
  Fair enough. I supposed it would be in the local headlines, but I frequently tune out from the news for long stretches of time.
  - pixl97 1y ago
    Back when watchpeopledie was a subreddit you could catch a clip of this type making a fatal mistake.
  - SoftTalker 1y ago
    These are people who just disappear. Nobody reports them missing because nobody cares.
badpun 1y ago
Alcoholics in Poland steal live train and tram traction. Once in a while, they die.
chasd00 1y ago
wait until it becomes widely known how much copper is in one of those EV super chargers. Although witnessing a bug zapper effect may deter some thieves.
- Kirby64 1y ago
  The unfortunate thing (for deterring theft at least) is that the actual DC cabling is going to be unenergized for safety reasons unless you’re actually charging. Copper theft on those charger plugs is already happening.
  - jerlam 1y ago
    I'm told that many (if not most) chargers in Europe are Bring Your Own Cable. I don't know if that's for compatibility or for theft reasons, but it makes sense.
    - Kirby64 1y ago
      I’m not aware of any DC fast chargers that do that, even in Europe. It wouldn’t make sense, since the amount of power you have to push through a DCFC setup is so immense that the cabling is quite unwieldy and specialized. Often the cables are liquid cooled.
      - hunter2_ 1y ago
        Indeed, they're talking about L2 AC public chargers in Europe being BYOC. And going back to the idea that cables are de-energized when not charging, this is true for L2 AC also (the EVSE will have a contactor that the car effectively controls).
        Kirby64 1y ago
        Yup, basically the only chance for you to get zapped by a charger is either ripping the whole thing out so you make contact with the input AC, or cutting the wire while it’s actively charging a car. And even then, chargers have ground fault protection for L2, and L3 chargers have high voltage isolation monitoring. They’re remarkably safe even against blatant tampering.
- cyberax 1y ago
  It's already widely known. Here in Seattle all the outdoor HVDC chargers are now down, with the cables cut.
techjamie 1y ago
They do that here with the ISP wires and it takes out internet and cell service all over the county and beyond for usually two days straight each time. All the providers here run off the same infrastructure, so the only people with internet are those with satellite internet when it happens. I started driving in a direction to see how long it would take me cell service during it once and I had to drive about 40 miles. At its peak it was happening every single month, but slowed after it started catching press.
dylan604 1y ago
Not just meth heads, but junkies too. Only around here, they climb the poles to cut the cables. Unfortunately for all involved, they are cutting the fiber lines so not only do customers loose signal, the junkies don't actually get any copper.
jacquesm 1y ago
A temporary powerline was installed to keep a small industrial area in Amsterdam powered up while there was a new substation built. Step up and step down transformers on either side of the link took care of not having to use a massive diameter cable which amongst other obstacles had to be strung underneath a bridge. After a week or so the power failed. A hacksaw blade was found embedded in the cable. The police declined to investigate because the people from the power company told them that whoever did that had already been punished sufficiently.
- everybodyknows 1y ago
  Wouldn't they be looking for a dead body?
  - jacquesm 1y ago
    There was a person with severe burns admitted to the nearest hospital (OLVG) so that wasn't a real problem (for the authorities, for that guy it was a completely different matter). I trust his copper thieving days were over. It was a real problem too because it wasn't exactly a trivial thing to splice, in the end they just ran a new cable in exactly the same way and that one lasted until the substation was back online. I lived there (illegally) at the time so I got to be the one to call it in. I got some funny looks from the cops when I returned to my company quarters with the power off. To make matters worse: I also took that whole lot offline one cursed evening not that long afterwards just before a tradeshow. Not my best moment. To put it mildly.

by daoboy 1y ago

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

stavros 1y ago

How do you know they haven't?

daoboy 1y ago
Fair enough. I supposed it would be in the local headlines, but I frequently tune out from the news for long stretches of time.
- pixl97 1y ago
  Back when watchpeopledie was a subreddit you could catch a clip of this type making a fatal mistake.
- SoftTalker 1y ago
  These are people who just disappear. Nobody reports them missing because nobody cares.

badpun 1y ago

Alcoholics in Poland steal live train and tram traction. Once in a while, they die.

chasd00 1y ago

wait until it becomes widely known how much copper is in one of those EV super chargers. Although witnessing a bug zapper effect may deter some thieves.

Kirby64 1y ago
The unfortunate thing (for deterring theft at least) is that the actual DC cabling is going to be unenergized for safety reasons unless you’re actually charging. Copper theft on those charger plugs is already happening.
- jerlam 1y ago
  I'm told that many (if not most) chargers in Europe are Bring Your Own Cable. I don't know if that's for compatibility or for theft reasons, but it makes sense.
  - Kirby64 1y ago
    I’m not aware of any DC fast chargers that do that, even in Europe. It wouldn’t make sense, since the amount of power you have to push through a DCFC setup is so immense that the cabling is quite unwieldy and specialized. Often the cables are liquid cooled.
    - hunter2_ 1y ago
      Indeed, they're talking about L2 AC public chargers in Europe being BYOC. And going back to the idea that cables are de-energized when not charging, this is true for L2 AC also (the EVSE will have a contactor that the car effectively controls).
      - Kirby64 1y ago
        Yup, basically the only chance for you to get zapped by a charger is either ripping the whole thing out so you make contact with the input AC, or cutting the wire while it’s actively charging a car. And even then, chargers have ground fault protection for L2, and L3 chargers have high voltage isolation monitoring. They’re remarkably safe even against blatant tampering.
cyberax 1y ago
It's already widely known. Here in Seattle all the outdoor HVDC chargers are now down, with the cables cut.

techjamie 1y ago

They do that here with the ISP wires and it takes out internet and cell service all over the county and beyond for usually two days straight each time. All the providers here run off the same infrastructure, so the only people with internet are those with satellite internet when it happens. I started driving in a direction to see how long it would take me cell service during it once and I had to drive about 40 miles. At its peak it was happening every single month, but slowed after it started catching press.

dylan604 1y ago

Not just meth heads, but junkies too. Only around here, they climb the poles to cut the cables. Unfortunately for all involved, they are cutting the fiber lines so not only do customers loose signal, the junkies don't actually get any copper.

jacquesm 1y ago

A temporary powerline was installed to keep a small industrial area in Amsterdam powered up while there was a new substation built. Step up and step down transformers on either side of the link took care of not having to use a massive diameter cable which amongst other obstacles had to be strung underneath a bridge. After a week or so the power failed. A hacksaw blade was found embedded in the cable. The police declined to investigate because the people from the power company told them that whoever did that had already been punished sufficiently.

everybodyknows 1y ago
Wouldn't they be looking for a dead body?
- jacquesm 1y ago
  There was a person with severe burns admitted to the nearest hospital (OLVG) so that wasn't a real problem (for the authorities, for that guy it was a completely different matter). I trust his copper thieving days were over. It was a real problem too because it wasn't exactly a trivial thing to splice, in the end they just ran a new cable in exactly the same way and that one lasted until the substation was back online. I lived there (illegally) at the time so I got to be the one to call it in. I got some funny looks from the cops when I returned to my company quarters with the power off. To make matters worse: I also took that whole lot offline one cursed evening not that long afterwards just before a tradeshow. Not my best moment. To put it mildly.