copper theft crime wave

Had a bad smell in the neighbourhood just yesterday and an ex firefighter said, smells like copper theft to me..they burn off the insulation.

Then today I read this article.

It sounded like the opening from a noir whodunnit. A body is found in the early hours of the morning in the remote desert outside San Diego, close to the Mexican border. Nearby a ladder is propped against a pole; cutting tools are scattered on the ground. A downed 12,000v power line lies near the body.

It did not take a Sam Spade or a Philip Marlowe to solve this mystery. "If you're out there at 2 o'clock in the morning with a ladder I don't know what else you'd be doing," said James Bovet, a sergeant at the San Diego county sheriff's department, when the body was found two weeks ago.

Dennis Ray Daniels, 44, was one of two dozen people reported to have been killed in the past two years in the US engaging in a curious new crime sweeping parts of the developed world: copper theft. With copper prices rising from 80 cents a pound five years ago to $4 a pound, the wiring and pipework to be found in transport, buildings and electrical infrastructure is suddenly attractive booty for thieves.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/20/internationalcrime