“The damage is to about a third of the bridge, so it is extensive,” says a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works.
LA Magazine: “The Ribbon of Light,” as it’s called, has been dimmed lately. City officials say copper thieves are targeting L.A.’s famously illuminated 6th Street Bridge, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
Tonya Shelton, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, told the Times, “The damage is to about a third of the bridge, so it is extensive.”
Stealing copper is a somewhat common crime, as it can be a quick way to make money. Thieves will destroy infrastructure to get to the copper wires within, used as electrical conductors. Then they turn to scrap yards or metal recyclers, who pay them a fee.
At this site, utility boxes were broken into, and video footage shared on X shows random wires sticking out from the rails of the bridge. The theft has not been said to affect the safety of the bridge, only the aesthetics. No timeframe has been given as to when the wiring will be fixed to restore the bright architectural feature to its full glory. more
Too bad the local metal recyclers don’t have standards of doing honest business.
When you get thousands of pounds of copper wire, you know the shlub that showed up with it is dishonest. How’d you get it, Bub? Where’d it come from? You aren’t an electrician deconstructing a high-rise.
Like pawn shops, it should be traceable from requiring state IDs for their transactions.
I understand Detroit went through this years ago. The companies that ran the streetlights started stripping everything when the city couldn’t pay the bills. Wiring, posts – everything metal. Better them than the thieves.
Another side note: The house across the street from me has been a rental for decades.
It was empty and had “For Rent” signs a few months in a row over 10 years ago when I noticed a mini van in the driveway that seemed to be there to work on the place. Then I noticed he was loading short pieces of copper wire and pipes into it. Looked like the place was getting stripped.
I called the owner and there was an exciting few minutes as he confronted the thief. I stood by the owner with my Glock in an open carry holster easily visible to the thief. the dude quickly drove away and the police said the plate did not belong to that vehicle.
This was broad daylight, in the afternoon, as he went about his business of stealing what he could. And almost all of the neighbors didn’t pay any attention to what he was up to.
Thieves will steal you blind if you aren’t paying attention.
Prisons solve these problems. Just ask any El Salvadoran.
@Anonymous, you mean the El Salvadorans crossing our Southern boarder?
Seems like déjà vu all over again …
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
At 1 time copper was $4.37 a pound.
Being we are a port city. All the coax
cables coming off a cell tower have 18″
1/4″ thick copper plate they all ground to
before entering the shelter. I remember many
of them cut out when I visited the sites.Each
plate was $35 at the scrap yard.
Remember copper rooves and gutters on old buildings? No more…
I used to enjoy reading stories about copper thieves so stupid they fried themselves trying to cut through energized conductors, but those stories are getting harder to find these days. Darwinism at work, perhaps?
https://youtu.be/i2j7Q998jyE?si=wLRs7fSMMWQ0Hp7l