‘Gutter Grabbers’ Target Main Line Homes For Copper

July 11, 2011 11:30 PM

Filed under

Local, News, Seen on, Syndicated Local, Watch + Listen

Check Out

PENN VALLEY, Pa. (CBS) – A rash of copper thefts in Montgomery county has residents on alert.

They may not seem like your typical targets, but thieves in Montgomery County are looking for copper. Gutters and downspouts made of the precious metal are being stolen from people’s homes along the Main Line.

Lower Merion Township Police have reported a significant increase in the thefts of copper downspouts and gutters being taken from homes throughout the area.

“I thought, ‘I’m so far from the road, nobody’s going to come in here,’” said Virginia Dean of Penn Valley, who recently fell victim to the rash of crimes. “I came out to cut the lawn and suddenly realized that I was missing downspouts. It’s upsetting to think someone would just come here and do that.”

The ‘gutter grabbers’ have hit several homes in the area, including homes in Saunders Woods and Mill Creek Road in Gladwyne and Righters Mill Road in Penn Valley.

Watch The Video …

“The policeman came back and told me ‘you know, you’re not the only one,’” said Dean.

Police have a possible lead in this case. They are looking for a gray Ford Econoline truck with ladders on the roof rack and license plate YXB-1958.

If you have any information, please contact police.

MOST VIEWED GALLERIES

PHOTOS: Best Female Musicians Of The 2000s

PHOTOS: Celebrity Infidelity Scandals

PHOTOS: Celebrity Birthdays: May

PHOTOS: Top 20 Most Hated Hollywood Celebrities

PHOTOS: Spring Fashion Trends As Told By Celebrities

chuhyona

“Every aspect of life in America today is worse than it was when [President Obama] took over. Unemployment higher. Interest rates. The only thing that has gone down in America over the last two years is the value of your home. This president has mismanaged this economy. He has been incompetent in his management of this economy,”
momsaid

So, having sturdy, corrosion-resistant gutters means ‘you’re asking for it’. Thieves are thieves. They rarely steal cheap stuff. Using your logic, no one should ever buy anything expensive or of high quality. That way, the thieves won’t steal from people. BULL. Thieves want things they haven’t earned. They believe they deserve other folks’ belongings. And their money. And their wives (rape, kidnapping, etc.). Sounds like you are on the thieves’ side here. Idiot.
WelovetheUSA

Typical statement to justify being a thief, if their were no hard workers in this country their would be No jobs…the makers provide jobs they work hard to produce products and employees many to help them achieve the same. They are not the rich, they are like me and every hard working soul who lives in this America, who saves their money for 40 years and works hard to have things they have worked for. This country is who she is because of the hard working men and women, who have give the rest of the world everything they now enjoy today, from medicine, to good food, to space, to cars, to homes and all thats in a home today came from Americans.There are makers in this world who keep our country who she is today, the takers are the Obama people who want to destroy America. Lets put it a more simple way..Line up all the college kids from Harvard, they are honor students and have straight “A”….Obama’s way of thinking is for these honor students to give up all their “A”s to the kids who failed with “F’s…..

is it just me

Tell him WelovetheUSA. Nothing wrong with working hard and beautifying one’s surroundings. When you do this it makes every gutter rat envious, wanting to live there too. Unfortunately for some you have to have a work ethic and a sense of morality in order to have an understanding of how to make it happen. God Bless the USA my friend.

joe

Before Obama,…copper was over 3$ and aluminum was 80C.
Then Obama was elected and copper plunged to 75C and aluminum went to 17c

in 3 years, it has rebounded to 1.70c and about 52c

J Mail

Goldman Sachs caused this with their Commodities Index. Don’t blame Obama. Get the facts. Sorry stepping away from the keyboard now.

William S

No sir, it is called currency debasement (aka deficit spending). When you debase the currency by spending money you do not have, it makes commodities and other real assets worth more. In the end, the value of the commodities has not changed, it is just the amount of commodities you can by with increasingly worthless fiat printed paper dollars courtesy of Benny and the Inkjets.

Ben

Copper is $4.40 a pound.. Wake up!

Steve

J Male
I am sure that there are some obscenely rich people who aren’t exactly creating jobs. Can you name some? How is it that they are eliminating jobs?

J Mail

Can you name some that have created jobs?

J Mail

I know of one cut in the economy that would have an immediate positive effect . . . get us out of Afghanistan, Iraq and all of the other countries that we want to occupy. For some reason this is omitted from any discussion of getting the economy back on its feet. Why is that?

Getting us out of these countries would get us 1/3 of the way to fixing the economy.

Personally I would like to see all the folks that squandered and took advantage of the mortgage mess and derivatives taken out in the public square and be hung. This will not happen because the government was “asleep at the wheel” when they should have been watching them like a hawk. No one knows who these crooks were so they got off Scott free. The government (Republicans) underfunded the people that were supposed to be monitoring them so there was no way to do it.

You got questions? I got answers!

Mark

I hate to bore your talking points with the facts, but Chris Dodd and Barney Frank were at the helm of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was the Democratic controlled house that insisted we loan money regardless of the ability to pay. ACORN was right in the middle of it. The Republicans and Bush were sounding the alarm, but social justice and redistribution trumped basic economics.

Brian Wilkin

Good try Mark, but you should know a good liberal will not listen to reason. They will probably call you a racist. Then they will say a lie enough times that maybe someone will believe it. The one said most, and Obama’s personal favorite, “It is Bush’s fault!”.
Mishmash

Bush and his cronies DEREGULATED the trade of those commodities and created this firestorm. You should get YOUR facts straight.
AL

Why is it when the dems “fix” a problem and it gets worse, they blame someone else? Socialism has never worked, there is no social justice fix and the left is just too stupid to realize they have been taken over by the enemy.
Mikey

@Mishmash

Deregulated commodities? We’re talking about the banking collapse that was engineered by the feel good liberals and their utopian lunacy. Try to keep up already…

And JMail,

While the wars and bases we have in other countries are costing us quite a bit, they are are not nearly as expensive as our bloated and corrupt “entitlement programs”. If we were to trim up Social Security, Medicare, Medicade, Welfare, Food Stamps, Unemployment and all the other freebies that we give to the 49% of Americans that don’t pay federal taxes we would eliminate our debt.

Dan Lewis

I have a question..Why don’t we defund Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and save our economy? I am talking about trillions here in the long run. Get the freaking government out of the real estate business…
Lloyd Swain

Hey Mr J. If you look at the facts. We go into a country. Totally rebuild the infrastructure and then leave. Look at Japan..
The mortgage problem is not republicans. Take a look at Barney Frank who was involved with Fanny Mae.
The real fault is all of us for trusting the greed of who we elect. Either party. I think WE need to drain the swamp. (right Nancy?)
Pat

Well for starters, it was under Jimmy Carter and compounded by every sitting president since that it was ordered that mortgage lenders loosen their lending practices. It used to be 25% to 30% of total income allowed for mortgage payments which included taxes and insurance.

Now on to debasement of the dollar buy our government and federal reserve system. If you read the constitution of the United States it specifically states that any person debasing our currency is guilty of treason and as such should be hung. Interesting huh?

is it just me

Why don’t they just stockpile pennies? No one wants them and they are plentiful. There is no fear of criminal penalty here.My wish would be they’d be arrested and all prisons would have buffet night every night in the prisons with all the fast food they can eat and what we on the outside can’t resist. These guys for the most part are in great shape with healthy meals and access to a well equipped gym making them very agile to commit more crimes upon release. They already have great health care with no co-pay so lets over feed them and we’ll have fat, happy, less agile prisoners.

J Mail

Very little copper in pennies. They are steel core with plating on the outside. Yes, the copper normally in a penny is worth more than the penny. This necessitated the change to steel core. When steel in a penny is worth more than the penny you will see it disappear also.

K Miyasaki

pennies before 1982are 95% copper. Some Canadian pennies are up to 98% copper (I think it was before 1995 or so)
Garrett Arizala

Pennies are now made of zinc. Older ones were copper, but are mostly out of circulation now.
jess

Actually the core is zinc.
Mikey

Same thing happened when they replaced the 90% silver coinage with the coppronickle makeup. Any dime, quarter or half dollar minted on before 1964 is worth quite a bit more than face value. I used to love collecting these but they have been almost completely eliminated from circulation.

J Mail

Oh, please!
J Mail

OMG, truly frightening!
J Mail

Can’t see your point. The president of this country for 4 years does not have the ability to change the face of a country. Unless it is to make us a disgrace in the face of the world like “W” did.

Small business owner

I am pretty sure you will continue to vote Democrat, so you will be able to continue to live off the backds of the producers of America. If the debt ceiling is not raised, you will still receive your public assistance check. Democrats had controlled the Houde and Senate from 2007, look at the start of the economy;s downturn. Vote out all Democrats in 2012.

J Mail

Unfortunately, the train-wreck of an economy that “W” created did not fully mature until his predecessor took over. An increase in taxes on the rich is necessary. You can’t cut yourself to prosperity.

(I know blaming it on “W” will send you ballistic . . . but it’s TRUE!)
J Mail

successor, sorry.
jejune

Wow – ‘until his predecessor took over’. Unless time travel is a reality you’ve just revealed your intellect level, J Mail. Enjoy your sucky life.
J Mail

Hah! Corrected before your jab!
Mikey

Ahh the old “Bush ruined the economy” bit. You would think the liberals would get tired of that lie…

The day the democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009 it was actually January 3rd 2007 the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, the
start of the 110th Congress. The Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.
For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is “Bush’s Fault”,think about this:

January 3rd, 2007 was the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress.
At the time:
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush’s Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!

Remember the day…
January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took ver the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee. The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
Thank Congress for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5 GDP
and 4.6% Unemployment to this CRISIS by dumping 5-6 TRILLION
Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac fiasco’s! (BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie
& Freddie – starting in 2001, because it was financially
risky for the U.S. economy, but no one was listening).
And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae
AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA.
And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democratic Congress.
So when someone tries to blame Bush…
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007…. THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS
TOOK OVER!” Bush may have been in the car, but the Democrats
were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel they were
driving.
Set the record straight on Bush!

Facts JMail, they’ll get you every time.

Nemo

Yeah Mikey. Why don’t they just blame God? The prophet Daniel did say He watches over the evil and makes sure it comes to pass…

rr

Hey, aren’t we supposed to “share the wealth” with the Obama street thugs? After all, whitey done them wrong.

JohnDave

Anyone that steals ANYTHING (or breaks in) from my property will be shot to death on the spot. Beats the costs of lawyers, police, trials, jail.

Larry

J Mail said; “We might all be in better shape if the Republicans would quit roadblocking everthing the President attempts to do.”

Obama is a total fraud, a pathological liar and deranged. He is the real enemy of this country, and to our way of life. The most dangerous thing we face is Liberalism (Communism).

Your ignorance of real economics is amazing. You said that the “rich” eliminate jobs? Where is your data su[pporting that slur. Who owns the companies that hires the workers? It is nonstop with you people attacking the engines of the economy and trashing the free market. Obama is a fraud, a thief and a traitor.

Lefties have rabies

J Mail…jeez you scare me. You are soooo missing the facts and rant on in your pathetic diatribe. Spooky.
J Mail

Nothing but facts which I find frightening!

ONTIME

This lack of property respect could lead to vigilantiism if the local police are to few or to hand tied to remedy the problem….self defens of life, limb and property is a constitutional right
broadwaybill

Obama is waging war all over the middle East, spending Billions of Dollars all the while threatening to cut social programs and doing all he can to shut down small businesses here at home. He is working for the NWO crowd who have a plan to shut down all european ran countries with poor economy. Pitting the working class against the capitalist. This is exactly how the USSR was created and they are at it again. This scenario is the only one that makes sense as to why Obama is doing what he is doing.
War on gangstas

Compared to a 100 years ago, we in America are stockpiling criminals by the hundreds of thousands. They are Gangstas that 100 years ago would have been hung or worked to death in a farm labor camp.Our ancestors did not have the resources to care for the numerous incorrigibles that we now do. Mercy to the few has been nothing but cruelty to the many. We put Indians on reservations for less than what our urban gangs do now.I only hope to identify the problem, as that is the 1st step to fixing it. Evil people in the past were dealt with very harshly and few survived the wrath of the public. The key is to make the criminals fear us more than we fear them.
broadwaybill

There is no need for racism. Try meth addicts, that come in all colors.
J Mail

We might all be in better shape if the Republicans would quit roadblocking everthing the President attempts to do. Republicans are 180 degree out of anything the President wants to do. We need to restore the tax rate for the wealthy before “W” gave them a free ride. Wealthy eliminate jobs. They are not job creators.

broadwaybill

I have never worked for a poor person.

J Mail

I’m proud of you. I’m sure you never worked for an extremely wealthy person either.

JM

When it comes to road blocking- are you referring to the debt ceiling? If you are, then you might enjoy this quote from Obama himself when he voted against raising it when Bush was president:

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” -Barack Obama

EXPLAIN.

When you said that the wealthy do not create jobs…….you failed to mention who creates them. Poor people?

EXPLAIN.

J Mail

Are you so naive to think that the top 1% of the country create the jobs? I fail to see where you can equate the corporations (that are stockholder owned) that do create jobs with the obscenely rich individuals in this country that don’t?
J Mail

Are you so naive to think that the top 1% of the country create the jobs? I fail to see where you can equate the corporations (that are stockholder owned) that do create jobs with the obscenely rich individuals in this country that don’t?
Steve

Step away from the keyboard dude. You aren’t helping your cause at all. Jobs and Gates are obscenely rich and have created untold jobs. Have you ever created a job?
J Mail

They have created many jobs in China, Pakistan, India. This cant be disputed.

OK, I will step away from the keyboard.

See ya.
TroyG

J Mail Recently, the CEO of 3M addressed a group of Politicians and explained why he builds plants in other countries. Do you have any clue what he said?

It isn’t labor costs which drives him and others to offshore factories.
It is the Stupid, Expensive, and ridiculous rules and regulation from the EPA, and the Feds which make it so costly to build a plant in the U.S.

The Green Party, and Big Government are driving business offshore.
Both are in the Democrat Tent. Oh, and since the US has one of the highest Corp tax rates in the world, our Government drives our business offshore. Who provides the Government this power? Idiots who are always okay with raising taxes, on some other group of people. People like you apparently.
Lefties have rabies

Just keep standing in line at the welfare office, you’ll get your check and maybe some free cheese. Try working and stop whining. It’s the elites money, NOT yours. You’re just pi$$ed they worked hard and earned it, while you want yours given to you.

Steve

And what are you doing to create a job?
jess

problem is you are stuck in “R” vs. “D” mode and essentially you look like a bee stuck in the window.
Guess Who

How many jobs do the poor create, libt ard?
Mikey

Same old cookie cutter comments lifted straight from the Daily Kos. Try thinking for yourself J Mail.
TroyG

You seem to exhibit many qualities of a partisan hack J Mail.
Show me one job which was created by a poor person….1 job….we will all be waiting for your response, eagerly.

chuck

welcome to obamo land
Sam

Copper is a great conductor of electricity. Hook up a low voltage cattle line to them and when Mr. Thief grabs it… Wham! Instant respect.

mcnertny

dont do it in florida you get prosecuted for protecting property

BigNose

So, they have a license plate.
Can’t they find out who the Econoline is registered to? Hello?

rico

Yea. That would require work. Its easier to have YOU do their leg work.

Ben

They know the license plate and can’t figure out who it is? wow. Great police work going on in that city.
Fred

It’s time to start deporting criminals of property theft or grand theft to Somalia. I’m serious – within a generation we will have the country cleaned up and back to the 1950′s when America was a great place.

J Mail

Great place for the white male! What about the rest of society? Not a great place for femails, blacks, hispanics . . .

J Mail

I stand corrected . . . female, not femail.
THE HAMBURGLER SPEAKS TRUTH
Steve

So that’s why so many blacks and mexicans and everyone else keeps pouring into our country.
J Mail

Legal citizens. Not illegal. Illegals are here to help suck the life out of this country.
TroyG

Not a great place for females, blacks, and hispanics?
Who says so? Show me the proof!
Frankly, if you wanted to work in the 50s, you could work. Color didn’t matter.
I know, I was there, and I worked with blacks, hispanics, and women.
Women understood the real job was the family. That’s why the generations who had Moms, at home produced good children for the most part.
Frankly, society has become a cesspit, with many Blacks and Hispanics, and Whites sucking on the Government teat….about 48% of them in fact.
Oh, about the time the EPA and the Government began regulating business is when jobs began going offshore too. Notice how the Mortgage industry was helped by the Government?
Are you bright enough to see a common thread here?

THERE IS NO UTOPIA, NO WHERE, AND NO TIME!
THERE WILL ALWAYS BE POOR, AND FRANKLY, TODAY’S POOR ARE OFTEN IN THE CONDITION DUE TO NOT TAKING ADVANTAGE OF FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION, AND BY OTHER POOR PERSONAL DECISIONS, LIKE BEING A SINGLE MOM.

Take off your blinders, criminals are criminals because they are lazy, or have squandered their opportunities.

Beau

At the rate we’re going, pretty soon they’ll be coming after your food.

mrbrownishere

Don’t you dare try to stop them from coming into your home to take their fair share of everything you own. This is what was done and is still bing don to whites in South Africa. They know you suffer from White Guilt and are paralyzed to stop it. Until there are black bodies laying in the street oozing blood, they will escalate.

This is not a drill…

AmericanLesion

Chicago has come to PA.

mrbrownishere

Better stop posting here and begin joining with your neighbors to form armed patrols. The cops do not have any intension of protecting you. You should now this by now.