[SBE] Tarring Copper

[Cris Alexander]

We have been getting hit at our 50 kW Birmingham AM site on a regular basis.
They put us off the air last week and this week, taking the strap, bus bars
and screen at all five towers. This weekend, they opened an ATU cabinet to
kill power to the security light and left it open. A heavy rain soaked the
inside of the ATU and destroyed the switching electronics inside. We have a
high-rez video surveillance system in place with cameras on all five towers.
They gave us some really excellent pics of two guys in ski masks and gloves
-- can't even tell what race they are let along what they look like! They
are well equipped and they work fast, in and out of two tower bases in half
an hour. They bring lots of tools and snip through the tower base fence
padlocks with a set of bolt cutters.

I suggested to Stephen Poole, our CE, the painting idea. Here is his
response...


>>I had a good talk with the deputy today, and I ran this idea past him.

He told me some stuff that he "really shouldn't say," if you catch my drift.
Here's the real problem.

The local scrap dealers are in cahoots with the thieves. The cops are trying
to catch them in the act, but according to him, the dealers aren't holding
the copper now. As soon as they get a truckload made up, the dealers quickly
ship it out of state for processing.

Basically, unless we can catch the thieves or the dealer with marked or
painted copper in his possession (as we did at Red Mountain), the trail is
cold by the time they get to the salvage yards. He said that their
detectives regularly check the salvage yards, only to find little or no
copper on site. It's moved almost as soon as it gets there.<<

______________________________
Cris Alexander, CPBE, AMD, DRB
Crawford Broadcasting Company
Denver, Colorado
(303) 433-0104
(303) 433-0905 Fax
Member AFCCE