For Time blogger, anger at scrappers is personal

[RealityCheck]

Work can wait, y'all - - Check out A Rant About 'Scrappers' by Darrell Dawsey.

It's pegged to the Packard Plant insider-stripping [DY thread on 9.20.10 DetNews article here], with powerful testimony about the urgent need "to figure out a way to stop feeding on ourselves."

I nearly cried at what I saw. The [tenant-vacated] home that my wife and I had worked so hard to care for was a total dump. ...

I'd tried to hold on to my house even after leaving the neighborhood — despite the economy, despite the falling property values, despite the fact that I had something bigger, newer — and I just couldn't.

Worse, I knew I wasn't alone. I knew there were hundreds of thousands of Detroiters fighting the same fight, well-meaning people who were trying like hell to hold fast whatever stake they had in this town, but who were no longer willing to be inundated by ridiculous odds.

[daddeeo]

Unless you have a 24 hr armed guard around property, you can kiss it goodbye.

[MikeM]

In Detroit, we call them "scrappers." And while I'm not sure of how much of a problem they present for other big cities, around these parts, the impact of these urban locusts can be seen in almost every neighborhood in the city.

In St. Louis they call them thieves:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/us/20brick.html

...the blaze, one of 391 fires at vacant buildings in the city over the past two years, may have had a more sinister cause. Law enforcement officials, politicians and historic preservationists here have concluded that brick thieves are often to blame, deliberately torching buildings to quicken their harvest of St. Louis brick, prized by developers throughout the South for its distinctive character.

[drjeff]

Scrappers are about the only thing in this world that make me want to become a gun owner.

[Searay215]

There is plenty of blame to go around...scrappers other wise known as [[Thieves, crooks or vultures), but there is also the scrap yards....when the same guy keeps coming back with wire, copper tubing and alike...shouldn't that be a red flag. I mean there can't be that many people throwing out that stuff....maybe you’re a demolition crew...well where is your license?
In my humble opinion, I think more can be done, and yes I know the police are stretched thin, but come on!!!

[bailey]

Scrappers are about the only thing in this world that make me want to become a gun owner.

careful, you'll shoot your eye out.

[Hypestyles]

There is plenty of blame to go around...scrappers other wise known as [[Thieves, crooks or vultures), but there is also the scrap yards....when the same guy keeps coming back with wire, copper tubing and alike...shouldn't that be a red flag. I mean there can't be that many people throwing out that stuff....maybe you’re a demolition crew...well where is your license?
In my humble opinion, I think more can be done, and yes I know the police are stretched thin, but come on!!!

no doubt.. as someone who's had the cat-converter on my car stolen [[in broad daylight), i have a particular disdain for scrappers..

[gnome]

x-post to Nolan Finley's op-ed

[Jared9903]

I am very happy to report that I saw some scrappers getting arrested on Piquette a couple weeks ago. One down... a hell of a lot more to go.

[bailey]

x-post to Nolan Finley's op-ed

wait, you can't do that, nolan finley is a racist suburbanite and nothing in his editorial was based in fact or reality in any way.

[wolverine]

I'll say it again.... Ban resale of metals such as aluminum, copper, and steel to the general public, statewide. Only allow licensed contractors that have secured proper building, construction, and demolition permits of an active job to recycle the material for a return.

For all the rest of you, all that extra wire from your last home remodeling job goes out on the curb. You get nothing in return except for trash pickup by the city.

If you are not a contractor actively working on a project, you have no business taking metals to a scrapyard.

[marcwigle]

Over here in Ottawa, Canada we had a rash of "scrappers" [[thieves) helping themselves to manhole covers... on manhloles that were still in use. I'd like to know what kind of moron at a scrapyard receiving a truckload of manhole covers would not be able to figure out for themselves if the covers were stolen property... seems kind of self-evident to most normal folks.

[Zacha341]

With a team of rottweilers and or pit bulls to enforce the idea....

Unless you have a 24 hr armed guard around property, you can kiss it goodbye.

[Zacha341]

Yes, scrappers need to go to JAIL and be heavily fined.

I am very happy to report that I saw some scrappers getting arrested on Piquette a couple weeks ago. One down... a hell of a lot more to go.

[Zacha341]

I work in a area where all cars [[especially Chrysler products) are subject to the 'four-minute' cat-converter removal. It's a matter of fact ugly. Jeeps are especially vulnerable... these folks work fast... and deliberate... what's is 'yours is mine'...

no doubt.. as someone who's had the cat-converter on my car stolen [[in broad daylight), i have a particular disdain for scrappers..

[DetroitDad]

Unless you have a 24 hr armed guard around property, you can kiss it goodbye.

There was one home I saw that had steel commercial grade shutters, one time. Then there is this, a home I drove by a while back.

Attachment 7476
I have a better picture, but wanted to emphasize that the home next door was vacant, and had been scrapped.

[barnesfoto]

To further complicate things, I'd like to mention that there are legitimate scrap collectors out there who are surviving by picking discarded metal items off of peoples curbs..It was a very efficient way to get rid of things like old appliances or galvanized pipe when I lived in SWD.
The recession seems to have driven even more people into the business. Friends in the burbs are now reporting regular collectors. Our society is wasteful, and honest scrappers exist.

I don't have much respect for the other kind, though. Even galvanized fencing is starting to become a target in some areas.

[gnome]

scrappers and urban explorers follow each other around like dogs sniffing asses.