Recently there was a news story about someone stealing manholes in my city.

[raccoon]

Why do they do that? Are they made of copper?

[joeybee12]

1. Oh, the jokes I could make...nt

[Blue_Tires]

15. Don't bother

[CoffeeCat]

2. This is just too tempting...

...so I think I'll just excuse myself, step away from the Internet and pour
myself another cup of coffee.

Oh, the things I could type!

[valerief]

3. Some manholes are worth their weight in gold. (I believe I handled that quite nicely.) nt

[MineralMan]

4. I don't know, but we do know how many holes it takes

to fill the Albert Hall. That is all.

[raccoon]

5. The most sensible reply here. Should've posted this in the Lounge.

Seriously, this is happening all over the US.

[MineralMan]

6. Manhole covers are almost universally made of cast iron.

I'm not sure what they bring as scrap, but I'd not be brave enough to try to sell them to a scrap dealer. Good way to get busted, I'd think.

[NutmegYankee]

11. I'm sure their are crooked scrap dealers wo take them.

Just look at all the other stuff stolen, like water pipes, air conditioner condenser coils, copper gutters, and hand rails. At some point you would think a scrap dealer would get a clue, but some don't care.

[Lizzie Poppet]

21. No, but I know how many holes it takes to fill the House and Senate.

535. Of course, those are assholes...


And when not being snarky, I'd subtract at least a small handful from that figure. Pete DeFazio, for example...

[Marrah_G]

7. ................

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[democrat_patriot]

8. Sometimes it's for vandalism. Ever see a car hit an open one?

Gotta be ugly...

[customerserviceguy]

9. Wouldn't they steal the covers?

The manholes themselves are pretty tough to rip out of the street. Oh, and I prefer the PC term: Cylindrical personnel access orifices, thank you very much.

[RC]

18. Beat me to it. Kinda hard to get and carry off a 20 some foot deep man hole.

The covers are hard enough.

[customerserviceguy]

20. Hey!

Cylindrical personnel access orifices, please! Man hole just sounds so, so, sexist.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. made of iron ..

and iron and steel prices are going up. scrap prices go up, thieves grab it from wherever they can. They really need to crack down on the ones that are buying it.

[NutmegYankee]

12. See this link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhole_cover_theft

[madokie]

13. The covers are mostly made of cast iron

some of the newer ones are made of plastic
anyways the cast iron has value at the scrap yard.

[JohnnyRingo]

14. As an aside, do you know why they're always round?

Not a joke, there's a real reason.

[bighart]

16. So the cover doesnt fall in and kill someone.

[Obamanaut]

19. With the edge of the cover sitting on the slight projection of the road portion, round is

the shape that cannot be manipulated such that it will fall into the hole. The lid is slightly larger than the actual hole it covers.

A safety thing.

[JohnnyRingo]

22. Of course you're right...

But this is one of those things I didn't learn until pretty late in life.

I admit that sometime the synapses don't snap as fast as they used to. I was working on my car some time ago. When I was done I slammed the hood and suddenly realized I closed my shirt sleeve in it. I struggled for longer than I want to admit trying to reach the hood release as my panicked mind imagined my lifeless skeleton still hanging on the side of the car until I was discovered. Then it occurred to me that I could take my shirt off.

[hedgehog]

17. My daughter works for a sewer authority. They're tack welding

the covers in place.

[Bombero1956]

23. not unusual

Someone stole a bridge recently.

A bandit, or possibly several, has stolen a privately owned steel bridge from a secluded area in Lawrence County.

The Covert's Crossing bridge in North Beaver Township has been in the area since at least the early 1900s, according to the Lawrence County Historical Society.

State police suspect someone used a torch to tear apart the bridge, which was worth an estimated $100,000, sometime between Sept. 27 and Wednesday.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11280/1180364-455.stm#ixzz1aRfFyhaB

[csziggy]

24. Years ago a crew stole an entire house in this town

A guy bought a house, probably to use as a rental property. Two weeks later, he drove by and it was gone. According to a neighbor some men worked over the weekends to demolish the house and carry the materials away.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19720421&id=OXZPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JAUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7158,3851083