Stealing Air Conditioners

[DaveDQ]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

You need a trapdoor in front of it that goes down into a dungeon.

And in this dungeon would be...Little children who were chasing their wandered off ball. Senior Citizens. Pet Animals and Robert Goulet.

[skitch]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

Buy a Komodo dragon.

[Acid]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

Buy a Komodo dragon.

That's about the only thing you can do in this situation.

[aukevin]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

That's about the only thing you can do in this situation.

LOL

That's crazy though Johnny. It had to be vandalism.... Who would just steal one? I'd mark yours in a big way just incase it is someone in the neighborhood doing it.

[JohnnytheSkin]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

Vandalism makes sense, but just take a sledgehammer to it if you want to make a point! Why make off with the whole unit?

I just can't deal...it's right next door, and the exact same unit! I'm going crazy, here, especially since we are heading to Florida in a month for two weeks!

[mjb2124]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

I just found some links talking about copper prices being on the rise

Yep. At work I replaced about 60 batteries from our UPS unit in the datacenter over one weekend. Put them all in the hall and was going to ship them out that next week to a place that would get rid of the batteries appropriately. One of the nights the next week someone cut both the positive and negative terminals (copper wire) from every single battery and took them. I couldn't believe it. It didn't matter to me as they were all old batteries that needed replaced, but talk about people being hard up for copper!

[Quick6]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

Take a $H** on it. Noone wants to touch $H**!

[pfunk880]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

Take a $H** on it. Noone wants to touch $H**!

[HungryBologna]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

Stealing copper is a huge thing down here. People steal the copper wires out of light poles, construction sites and like you said, they just tear the insides of industrial A/C units. Around here the recycling centers have to get proper ID and log what was brought in because it has been so bad.

[RoyalBoyle78]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

My neighbor, in a reasonably upscale part of southern Illinois (we live in a small house, but the surrounding homes are enormous) just had their outside AC unit stolen...clean off the concrete base! All that's left is some foam insulation and the electrical line.

I'm now at a loss, since I assumed (rightfully so) that an outside air conditioner was as far from a thief target as can be. I'm doubly worried since we have the identical unit on our house!

Has anyone heard about this? Is there anything I can do (short of building a fence around my AC )? And if would there be an electrical/fire hazard if say the unit does get stolen and it goes to turn on.

I'm a near insomniac now, which I know may seem a bit ridiculous, but I NEVER thought an AC would be a target. I hasn't even been above 80 degrees yet!

I know it's not nice, but it's kinda of funny if you just think about it happening in your head, them things are huge, how could nobody see walk away with this?

[JohnnytheSkin]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

I know it's not nice, but it's kinda of funny if you just think about it happening in your head, them things are huge, how could nobody see walk away with this?

While I chuckle about how preposterous the whole thing is (even a 4x4x4 cube style unit is heavy as hell) the prospect of replacing a several hundred dollar unit sucks.

I hope that maybe it was a vindictive gardener or someone who's done work for the elderly couple. I mean the woman is a cranky old bird!

[Knight165]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

Could just be someone stealing an AC unit to use for themselves...but without the air exchanger and the duct work....he's not saving THAT much by stealing one(unless he has that stuff installed and HIS crapped out.)

But the more likely answer is drug users...specifically Meth heads. They are notorious for doing ANYTHING to get a buck. They will spend hours and hours to do something that will gain them just enough for their next score.
It's the most hideous drug I've ever seen take a toll on people.

Put in a motion detector light aimed at your AC unit. I don't think someone is going to want to stay in view with a spotlight on them(although Meth heads will just do thier thing in the daylight...they don't give a crap.)....so it might help.

M.K.
Knight165

[bkfount]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

Stealing copper is a huge thing down here. People steal the copper wires out of light poles, construction sites and like you said, they just tear the insides of industrial A/C units. Around here the recycling centers have to get proper ID and log what was brought in because it has been so bad.

wow, I always wondered how you sold copper. That's got to be funny though, some sketchy *** meth heads bringing in copper like they mined it or something.

[Knight165]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

YEARS ago ....when I was still a teenager, I drove a truck for a roofing company(and worked up top too) for a commercial roofer.
When we would have a rip off(not stealing...I'm talking about when we would have to rip off the old roofs ) the boss would let us put the copper flashings(on older buildings..that's ALL they would use) to the sides and we would strip them of tar and the crew would get to bring it to the scrap yard and split the proceeds.
There were times when the amount of money got to be pretty big.
Inevitably when you were waiting....you would see some skank, crank head, glue huffin' MF'er come in with an arm full of leader pipe(the downspouts on gutters) aluminum no less...how's that for pathetic?...that he would get a couple of bucks for. It was obvious he was coming back from a night of just ripping them off of houses as much as he could.

M.K.
Knight165

[Holic]

Re: Stealing Air Conditioners

Theres really nothing you can do Johnny, besides maybe getting a dog.

You nailed it, the price you get for copper right now is absolutely crazy. I've seen people go in newly built homes, that have yet to be lived in, and rip all the copper wires out of the unfinished basements, and in some cases, they go behind sheetrock just to rip out the copper wiring.

Also, alot of the upscale houses around here, like to use copper gutters, and you guessed it. They get ripped down as well.

Good luck with it Johnny, no telling what kind of person is doing this. Most of them are druggies, looking for an easy way to get a quick fix.