Brazen Thief

Here is a brazen thief caught in the act in broad daylight. I guess they figured everyone was busy cleaning up after the storm and no one would notice.

Heck someone on this site was even asking about how to haul a electric pole from one farm to another farm last week.
My son saw this on the news in Florida and sent the picture to me.


stolen-power-pole.jpg




JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) Sheriff?s officials in Jacksonville say two men are accused of trying to steal a $2,500 utility pole days after Hurricane Irma caused severe flooding there.

Jacksonville sheriff?s officials say 42-year-old Blake Lee Waller and 46-year-old Victor Walter Apeler were arrested on grand theft charges Wednesday after someone reported seeing them load the pole onto a sports utility vehicle.

A police report says an officer noticed a light pole missing from an area on top of a bridge and then spotted a vehicle driving with the pole on top.

He stopped the vehicle and arrested the men.

The report says Apeler told investigators he was moving the pole because it was on the ground so close to traffic lanes.

A database search found Apeler had 72 scrap metal-related transactions for recycling since January.

A picture of the shirtless men sitting handcuffed on the sidewalk quickly drew attention on the sheriff?s office Twitter feed.
 

72 sales to scrap yards? And nobody asked where he was getting anything? Bunch of lowlifes, but the scrap yards aren't much better.
 
(quoted from post at 19:42:47 09/17/17)
72 sales to scrap yards? And nobody asked where he was getting anything? Bunch of lowlifes, but the scrap yards aren't much better.
Selling scrap by itself is not a criminal act. A neighbor of mine ALWAYS has stuff in the back of his p/u. He drives neighborhoods the nite before garbage pickup and loads up. I've called him numerous times to take stuff I'm throwing out (old bbq, misc metal from cleaning my garage, etc) I'll bet he goes 3-4 times a week to the yard. That'd be about 72 times since January as well. I understand he's well known at the yard, even has business cards. Never known him to steal anything. I had a pile of stuff that I wanted to keep and he never touched it.
 
When I was in Houston last week the scrappers were driving the streets, picking through the trash.

The ones I saw were asking first, but many of the homes are vacant, no one to ask.

Hard to say, if it's on the curb is it fair game? If the scrappers don't get it, the trash service will.

If the pole really was on the ground, as in blown down or knocked down, it was probably damaged. Even if it was a new one waiting to go up, it was unsecured.

For some reason, scrap theft is hard to prosecute. If scrap is stored outside, even if it's locked up, the police don't seem interested in responding.
 
john, i stll havent moved that utility pole yet. wonder if these fellas would move it for me????
 
Well wupptee-doo for the cop,he just solved the crime of the century. The dam pole was probly destined for the landfill anyhow. The best cop could have done is told them to return pole to where they found it. If they had been throwing bricks, busting out windows,looting,setting cars on fire and generally raising hell,cop would have turned his head rather than risk being called on the carpet by public opinion. Yes,those are a couple of low lifes but far from the worst out there.
 
I just replied to your post above, where you wanted to give a pass to the car thief, and here you want to do the same for the guys who swiped the pole. Glad I don't live in your world.
 
Quite the attitude you have there spook. Many is the time I kept the wolf from the door by scrapping.

Never stole a thing. Yet I am a low life.

there are words describing people like you.
 
(quoted from post at 22:02:56 09/17/17) Well wupptee-doo for the cop,he just solved the crime of the century. The dam pole was probly destined for the landfill anyhow. The best cop could have done is told them to return pole to where they found it. If they had been throwing bricks, busting out windows,looting,setting cars on fire and generally raising hell,cop would have turned his head rather than risk being called on the carpet by public opinion. Yes,those are a couple of low lifes but far from the worst out there.

You are pretty twisted.
 
(quoted from post at 17:15:23 09/17/17)
(quoted from post at 19:42:47 09/17/17)
72 sales to scrap yards? And nobody asked where he was getting anything? Bunch of lowlifes, but the scrap yards aren't much better.
Selling scrap by itself is not a criminal act. A neighbor of mine ALWAYS has stuff in the back of his p/u. He drives neighborhoods the nite before garbage pickup and loads up. I've called him numerous times to take stuff I'm throwing out (old bbq, misc metal from cleaning my garage, etc) I'll bet he goes 3-4 times a week to the yard. That'd be about 72 times since January as well. I understand he's well known at the yard, even has business cards. Never known him to steal anything. I had a pile of stuff that I wanted to keep and he never touched it.

I take stuff to the scrapyard myself. I have hauled stuff there for a neighbor that needed money. Scrapyards are not supposed to take items like manhole covers, light poles or other infrastructure items. But there is little enforcement of this. How is it that churches and schools have to put fences around their a/c systems? A couple local clowns tried to cut out a piece of a railroad rail, they were caught when the engineer, running on the same track, saw them and called police. They had to stop traffic on a busy line to repair and inspect things. Why do the take copper from folks that aren't contractors of some sort? We have had a problem here with vacant homes being trashed for the wiring and plumbing. If this guy is trying to steal a light pole, probably a lot of his 72 trips to the scrapyard were similar in nature. Guys like this are a problem.
 
(quoted from post at 08:17:11 09/18/17) Quite the attitude you have there spook. Many is the time I kept the wolf from the door by scrapping.

Never stole a thing. Yet I am a low life.

there are words describing people like you.

Yup. But I have taken stuff to the scrapyard myself. But like you I never stole it. My issue is more with the scrapyards. They ask no questions, even when they are dealing with convicted thieves. I think in most places, taking any municipal items is illegal. I'm sure these guys knew this.
 

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