Caught in the act

[qwerty hvac]

I had an early morning call at a bank in this plaza. The call was for no heat and only half the branch had power. When I pulled in I saw this condenser sitting in the parking lot by the door. The employs said that there was a guy trying to get it in his car when they got there. He must of saw them and got spoked and took off.


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[toocoolforschool]

Tell the bank that you don't install used equipment.
Crackheads are desperate that is for sure.

[jdblack]

What idiot doesnt know bankers hours?

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[OldSchoolMech]

Are you seeing more and more of this in your area?

[qwerty hvac]

What idiot doesnt know bankers hours?

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Funny thing was that this unit was for the space next door. What happened at the bank was that the cleaners shut of the wrong breakers when they left the nite before. Turned them back on and everything worked fine. But you could see how they thought it was related.


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[fliks]

I am not sure what they are even worth now but every install I do I call this guy I know and he shows up to remove the metal for me. I give him condensers, coils, furnaces, water heaters, and etc. This is his job and I appreciate not having to deal with it. We are both happy.

[qwerty hvac]

Are you seeing more and more of this in your area?

I am seeing it more. In the fall I had a no cooling call at a building with two RTUs. The was a call for no cooling in the building. I thought it was odd to have both units down. Check inside at the stats and they were both calling for cooling. Set my ladder up and found the problem right away. Both disconnects were shut off at each unit. Now the only way that could have happened was if someone climbed up on the roof and shut them off. I advised the owners of the issue and I think they got cameras around the building now.


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[Trehak01]

What idiot doesnt know bankers hours?

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drug dealers..

[OldSchoolMech]

drug dealers..

Spun Tweakers...........Hard to know what day/month let alone time

[Tommy knocker]

Our lay down yard got hit 2 weeks ago. Cut the fence and cut up several good used units. Lucky they only got what was close to the fence. Several brand new carrier and York RTUs 20' away waiting to be installed.

[ryan1088]

It's unfortunate they turned the disconnect off and didn't get the knocked out of them.

[clifpaul]

no joke.

[Ammonianite]

The last couple of years it has gotten really bad here in SW Ohio. Every time I perform maintenance or run service on RTUs in a strip mall you can look around the roof and see the skeletons of units. The thieves are pretty smart though. It seems like they know where the vacancies are and hit the empty spaces so it's probably a long time before anyone notices. I did have a large 30 Ton Carrier unit out back of an occupied retail store recently that was totally destroyed even though it was in a locked and fenced in area. Made me sick to see it. The unit was nearly brand new, less than a year old. Totally destroyed. They chopped the lineset from the point it entered the building (about ten feet off the ground) and took everything that was copper including the wiring from the disconnect to the unit. Bad craziness.

[moon_shadow]

This reminds me of a copper thief story from a couple of years ago, the idiot broke unto a factory sub station and took a hacksaw to the energized lines....

What happened? Well put it to you all this way, I don't think he ever did any actual time... the judge took a good hard look at him and what the resulting electrocution did to him (he was lucky to even be alive) and sentenced him to "time already served" I don't think he'll be stealing copper anymore, he probably won't be chewing his own food either.

[nolaHVAC]

Its really bad out here in New Orleans area. People do not even think twice about going to cut up all the units at a CHURCH!!! Its really sad to see that people have such little respect for other peoples belongings. Another thing that they have recently made law around here is when you bring any copper to a scrap yard, you do not get paid cash on the spot. There is a waiting period of at least 5 business days, and then they mail a check to the address on your license. Also, some places require you to show an EPA card or some type of Business card showing you are in the HVAC field in order to scrap over one coil. Great idea if you ask me.

[The460hvacdude]

Copper theft is everywhere around here in metro Atlanta. Thieves ripped out two units at our relative's house which was up for sale. We didn't find out until we were over there checking on things and I noticed the temperature was 82*F upstairs and the thermostat was set at 78* calling for cool. I went outside and I saw pieces of the units scattered around and saw the linesets and coils missing. It's a shame the units were only a few years old (installed back in 2008 after a tree fell on the old units from the 1980's). These type of thefts keep getting worse.

[The460hvacdude]

A church also had several units stolen and they were replaced several days later. Two weeks later, the new units were gone. The thieves even came back two months later to the same church and ripped out the units for the third time. This stuff pisses me off.

[nolaHVAC]

A church also had several units stolen and they were replaced several days later. Two weeks later, the new units were gone. The thieves even came back two months later to the same church and ripped out the units for the third time. This stuff pisses me off.

Yeah man, it really upsets me to see how bad off people are that they will steal from a Church!! What we have done for a few people now is fabricate a chain link fence around the units, then energize the fence! It helps prevent theft; doesn't stop it, but at least HELPS a little. It also prevents the customer from "fixing" their unit themselves! <------ Just a little added benefit!

[Core_d]

The substation i drive by everyday has a sign saying something along the lines of "all copper components have been removed" i guess a 10' fence,high voltage,felony and barb wire dont cut it.

[The460hvacdude]

Yeah man, it really upsets me to see how bad off people are that they will steal from a Church!! What we have done for a few people now is fabricate a chain link fence around the units, then energize the fence! It helps prevent theft; doesn't stop it, but at least HELPS a little. It also prevents the customer from "fixing" their unit themselves! <------ Just a little added benefit!

Even with fences, it still doesn't always help, but it can. Yup, customers should always call the pros out when their unit breaks down. They only screw things up even more trying to fix it themselves. That's another advantage of energizing a fence around the units!