I take the whole grill. Not just the top. Even though i have 2 grills in my yard. (My yard is clean by the way) I havent stripped them yet. I am waiting for more to show up, so i can dismantle several at once. Not 20! Maybe 5. Its not that hard of a job. The dirtest is cleaning out the lava rock. I found a shallow container in the garbage recently that i could dump the lava rocks in. You can either hammer the bottom parts off, or pry them off the frame with a prybar. Most of the nuts are seized to the frame anyways. I was just at the recycler yesterday dropping off stripped computer towers, and i had to go back home to get my wallet. Because of new construction material thefts you need to have a state ID when recycling any scrap at the recycler. Aluminum cans you dont need to have an ID present. Just everything else.

At the audio wholesale places here in Hong Kong, MOST of the units have their cords cut, almost as soon as they come in the door. In a way, I can understand it, as when you are stacking, unstacking and restacking piles of gear all day, the cords get in the way, take up space, and actually make things very inconvenient and even dangerous. If I were doing the volume of business they do, I would cut the cords, too, as much as it would pain me to do so. They usually don't cut the cords on the REALLY NICE stuff that they know will sell for premium prices, but most of it gets cut, including sometimes even the nice stuff. Sometimes I see big cardboard boxes or large bags full of cut-off cords.

It bugs me for several reasons:

1. Sometimes the gear are things like Marantz 22xx receivers, which always have the distinctive light-grey cords with large molded plugs on the ends (Usually European-style, here). Those are impossible to reproduce; you either find an original, or you can tell at glance that it is a replacement. I always look when I see boxes/bags of cords, to see if any of that type are in there, but as one would expect, I seldom find any. Even when I find one, attaching it to a unit as a replacement leaves me with a cord that is around a foot shorter than the original was. :sigh:

2. The little 2-part plastic clamps that keep the cords from pulling out (I forgot their proper name) are a BIG PAIN IN THE BUTT to get loosened, and also to re-insert with the new wire, and if they break in the process, there is no guarantee you can find a replacement of the correct size. If anyone has easy techniques for dealing with those awful things, please share them, because half the time I end up with broken ones, pained fingers and/or tried patience when dealing with them.

3. Every cut cord means one replacement cord that has to be found and installed. It doesn't take TOO long, but when you have to do it for nearly every piece you bring home, it adds up to a lot of "wasted" time.

Metal prices are high and going higher for the foreseeable future, mostly because (1) they are denominated in US$, and the US$ is weak and weakening, and (2) greatly expanded demand for metals in developing countries (especially China and India) is pushing prices up. Theft of metal stuff for recycling will only get worse --especially in places and times of recession, when more people at the bottom of the financial ladder get desperate to earn even modest sums for daily survival.

Funny you should mention this here.

A home in my neighborhood sat empty for about 3 months. When the new owners started getting it ready to rent, which is another problem to me entirely, they found that all the water lines were gone, along with all of the wiring that ran through the basement. The furnace was stripped, also.

I am amazed at how brazen people are getting. What ever happened to leaving things alone that dont belong to you?

We have a 1940s oil burner with steam boiler which is on its way out. I'll make sure I'M the one who profits instead of some scrap guy 'getting rid of it for us'

And maybe I;ll start pulling yokes from junked sets.... But I doubt I'll get that desperate for paper. People are nuts, stealing propane lines??!!

I would imagine that someone who owns a house that is about to be foreclosed/reprosessed, they might take out all the scrappable wire and pipe themselves. It's still their house until the repro guy shows up. As they are getting kicked out of the house anyway.

i hate thieves.. let them come on my property they will be carried off....

I was once told that some techs would cut the power cords off on dangerously dead equipment so people who find them won't plug them in and get fried.

I think a lot of cords were cut out of safety concerns (real or imagined). I can especially understand this if people had children in the house. I can't tell you some of the idiotic things I did with electricity while growing up.

Phil Nelson

Talking to a friend at NAB this year - he knows someone who had a 2" quad machine in storage - came to find it bashed and all the servo motors etc gone - makes me start to feel that cutting off the thief's hand is not cruel and unusual.

A transmitter site at a local AM station recently had as much of its copper wiring, ground strapping, and cabling stolen as they could without taking the station off the air. It wasn't until the power went down that they discovered the theft, as all the wiring and the emergency generator was missing.

Caused over $100000 worth of damage.

Anyone stupid enough to pull grounding off a live 50KW broadcast transmitter running off of high voltage 3 phase AC deserves a quick visa to hell IMHO.

pictures :)

I usually cut the cords and put it inside the cabinet when i trash stuff to avoid the cord getting in the way when carrying the appliance. The stuff i trash is usually unrepairable or only usable as spare parts, so i guess it doesn´t really matter.