Cast iron cabinet theft

This got nabbed from the front yard, hiding it in a bush evidently wasnt as great a protection as expected. If anyone sees it in a scrap yard or getting sold as industrial furniture on ebay please give me a message. Imagine it would be the Sheffield area.

Also beyond reporting theft to the police any other ideas on ideal retrieval methods?

Oh dear Rainbows

I wouldnt leave anything outside that i wanted

I leave any scrap outside and its usually gone within the day

saves me taking to the scrap yard

Ian,

I know it is a fact of life these days, but leaving stuff outside knowing it will disappear is surely just encouraging this kind of theft? We have left surplus tomatoes out for people to help themselves to, but they get ignored!

On a side note, we lost our black wheelie bin some months ago, complete with it's contents. That did seem rather bizarre; I would have expected the rubbish to be tipped on our driveway or in the hedge at the side; it had all gone.

Brian

They frequently go in the back of the wagon accidentally, on bin day. Once in, they don't come out again!

David,

The bin vanished whilst waiting for collection. I have known lids to be ripped off by the bin truck, ours was picked up by someone wanting a bin, contents not important.

Even the Council men bringing us a new one thought that this was a variation to a common theme.

Brian

Brian

perhaps i didnt make clear

if heres something you want rid of leave it on the pavement and it will be picked up in short time by scrap collectors

This has happened in sheffield for many years im sure also in most northern citys

Having said that Rainbows attempted to hide his prize and it still went

Anything left on the pavement is fly tipping and some councils are quite aggressive about it.

Anything left in your front garden is fair game to passing scrappies, that includes your new pushchair left by the front door.

I suggest half a day trawling around the local weighing in yards might find it.

First time I've ever kept something outside on account of someone having parked and blocked the garage door, I thought ah it will probably be able to last 12 hours until the path is clear - but here we go.Will see if I can search it outi n the scrappies

Someone near us lost their green bin for recyclables. One turned up in Eastern Europe!

Even if you nail it down, don't leave a claw hammer about!

Pity that we now have to be so cynical and suspicious, but that seems to be the way of the world these days.

Howard

A guilty admission - In days gone by I (and many of my friends) got rid of old engine oil by putting it into the new oil tin, then 'accidentally' leaving it just behind the car, usually in a supermarket carpark, or some such, then walk away for a few minutes - the 'new' can of old oil invariably disappeared. Not a good thing to do, I know, but I often hoped the thieving s**s put the old il in their cars. Some people will nick anything.

Problem there is the thieves, when they realise they have nicked a can of old engine oil, will just pour it down the drain. You might as well just pour it down the drain yourself....

Rainbows, If you have a Facebook account, search for the local interest and local neighbourhood watch groups.
they are quite good at spotting and reporting on vehicles behaving suspiciously.
From what I saw around North Sheffield before I moved away, I'd be surprised if it showed up locally in one of the scrapyards, though it's obviously worth a look.

I regularly saw transit pickups around our way collecting "scrap" but found it hard to believe that the piles of new kids bikes, good condition garden furniture, and fine cast iron ornaments, could all have been voluntarily "donated". I'm even aware of central heating radiators, both brand new, and even still with the paint drying, have been liberated.
Personally I've lost various large lumps of metalwork, that wasn't visible from the road or even a cursory glance around the back.
Also a full car engine, 4 motorbikes over the years, and someone tried nicking a Landrover gearbox whilst I was there fitting it, similarly the bonet, whilst I was working on the engine on a different day.

I have it on good authority that some of this was collected by a particular extended family, who were known to be rather violent. A little later, this moved on to a different community "litter collection group", also very threatening, perhaps moreso. Be very careful if you have to challenge them.

It's hard to mooch around scrapyards these days, but it's good that, officially at least, they're not allowed to purchase for cash.

I honestly believe that leaving real scrap out on the pavement only encourages these lowlifes to proliferate.

But I've been told of at least one scrappy who pays out by cheque then offers the use of his cheque cashing service,

Hence my comment "officially at least"
Since we moved, I've fortunately no longer felt the need to keep a pick-axe handle by the back door, though thefts aren't unknown even in Buxton.

No, the garden implement, that I forgot to return to the shed, isn't the product of a paranoid mind, but has been in my possession whilst chatting to a couple of our local visitors in the past.

p.s. where's the scrappy, I've got loads of lead acid batteries to dispose of.  

Bill

Edited By peak4 on 11/10/2019 02:26:35

I'm not sure about cash payout. Whenever I take scrap to my local yard they pay into my bank via my debit card. However our church has had the lead taken from the roof twice, the last quite recently and it's a substantial quantity of lead. That has to be disposed of somewhere, so I suspect cash payout is still alive and well.

.

I’m wary of your closing smiley, Bill, but you may like to know:

John Swindells [in Macclesfield] is excellent

... and despite the family name, an honourable man

MichaelG.

Scrap metal merchants have always had a strong association with crime. Not as well known perhaps as the Kray's but in the 1960s the Richardson Gang (aka the Torture Gang) were based on a South London Scrap Metal business. The owner of my nearest scrapyard is currently serving a prison sentence for receiving stolen goods.

Unfortunately the nature of the trade provides many opportunities and temptations for criminality. It's difficult for the police to prove that length of copper cable was nicked yesterday from the Railway causing massive inconvenience to commuters. Once it's known you don't ask where it came from, every ne'er-do-well in the area will come knocking, and profits will grow. In that game, very tempting to work in cash and not pay tax, whilst cash business is also a good way of laundering money.

I could almost recommend it as a career!

Dave

I've personally seen a scrap dealer who had a cheque cashing kiosk right next to the payment desk. I'd hazard a guess the bank never saw any of the checks they took.

Robert G8RPI.

Metal thieves are as bold as brass, during the night they pulled a mile of phone cable out of the ducts and cut the whole village off the internet and phone network. It took the best part of 2 weeks to repair the damage to the ducts and replace the cable. They must have had a buyer to go to that much trouble.

Mike

Our local scrap yard did, dunno if he still does. It's quite legitimate if they follow certain rules although it's largely redundant now since they nearly all use the 'card loading' system where they pay the money onto a pre-paid cash card and it's then available for instant withdrawal from the ATM.