OT- The price of brass

[Gun Smith]

I mentioned in a post yesterday about a man losing his legs in a freak accident here in Oregon. Here are the details. He was trying to dismantle a 1917 French 37MM cannon shell. His plan was to sell the brass. It measured about 1 1/2"(37MM) x 7". He was holding it on his lap when it exploded. The police spokesman said it was filled with black powder and not that uncommon to find ??. Anyway, a recycling yard said that amount of brass is worth about $1.75. I do know there are idiots out there cutting the ground cable (copper) off transformers in power substations and stealing it for salvage. But $1.75 for your legs?

[Ray Newman]

As the nuns @ St. Catherine's School would say: "Stupid is as stupid does."

Wasn't there a news article last year about 2 youths who were evading the police & jumped into a power substation to hide? IIRC, one -- if not both -- was electrocuted.

Now having said that, I'm sure there are some who feel that to prevent such accidents in the future, there should be a law against recycling brass....

[MikeNV]

Here in Reno we are have an tough time with the meth addicts crawling under vacant for sale homes and stripping out all of the copper water tubing..

[Ysabel Kid]

There has been a church hit in Charlotte a couple of times in the last few months. The thieves bust open the HVAC system, and have stolen everything they could hall away. Tens of thousands in loss each time.

Takes some guts to rob from God!

[kimwcook]

There has been a church hit in Charlotte a couple of times in the last few months. The thieves bust open the HVAC system, and have stolen everything they could hall away. Tens of thousands in loss each time.

Takes some guts to rob from God!

No Ysabel, just stupidity.

[morgan in nm]

Not that long ago, south of where I live, this meth-head tried to steel a bunch of wire from the oil fields. He got 6 miles worth when they found him from the smoke. Apparently, his pickup was hit by a stray cable and fried him to a crisp. There was also a case several months ago where 2 guys in Albuquerque got the bright idea to steal a light pole for the scrap aluminum. They ended up doing thousands of dollars of damage for a pole that was only worth $175 in scrap. They were easy to catch though with a 30ft light pole standing up in the back of their pickup.

[Sixgun]

If he was holding that shell in his lap, I bet his legs were not the only thing he lost -----------Sixgun

[Gun Smith]

Update: The surgeons did save his legs. Yeh, I thought about the "other" place he may have damaged. Thia AM's paper only said there was severe damage to his thighs.

[Gryphon Black]

Thighs, yeah. Severe damage. Right. I bet that reporter was trying hard to think of a way to write that one up and stay inside their editors good graces!
If his injuries are what we think they are, at least he won't be contributing to the Gene Pool!

[airedaleman]

I left a Model 1916 37mm AP shell tucked well away in the joists over the "dirt cellar" when we moved out of the old house in Massachusetts. I often wonder if the new owner ever found it, and what the reaction/response was (Massachusetts, you know).

[scr83jp]

There was a not wrapped too tight southern calif copper thief who went into what he thought was an abandoned substation and decided to steal the copper cable but to his final surprise it was carrying several thousand volts,turned him into a crispy critter!

[Noah Zark]

Back in the early 80s when metals were high, thieves broke into an old factory and stole large transformers for the steel and copper. They worked nights, cutting up the transformers on the spot. What stopped them was becoming ill from the PCB-laden transformer oil.

Noah