Putting the Squeeze On Broadband Copper Robbers

nk497 writes "As the price of copper rises, thieves have taken to stealing broadband cables, taking out internet connections and slowing down the rollout of super-fast broadband by giving engineers more work to do. To battle the criminals, UK provider BT has 21 investigators on staff to track down thieves and has started using SmartWater bombs that spray stolen property and the criminals. The SmartWater liquid carries a DNA fingerprint that links a criminal to the scene of the crime and police units carrying ultra-violet light detectors can use the incriminating stains to make an arrest after the trap has been sprung. 'We had one case recently where someone in Dagenham was stopped and searched after acting suspiciously and the police used a UV light on them and could show that they had been tampering with the equipment,' said Auguste. The SmartWater liquid can also be pasted inside cables, making them easier to trace — and less appealing to scrap metal buyers, helping to cut demand for stolen copper."

Yes, but most crime does not pay well

[SmallFurryCreature]

Crime does NOT pay all that well. Your car is NOT worth the money you paid for it. The moment you drive it out of the shop, it looses a lot of its value. Same with that gold ring. To a thief, it is even worth less because these things can only be sold to fences.

2nd hand copper is a legit trade. Tons of the stuff gets processed all the time, so if I show up with a ton claiming I was demoloshing a factory and dug it up, who is going to ask questions.

It may not be worth all that much, but I get market price for it, not what some fence is willing to pay.

And most criminals never become rich anyway. Yes, stealing a ton of copper is hard work, but so is regular work for that level of education/skill. These aren't smart criminals. Just greedy. That is why so many of them end up paying the ultimate price. Death as they cut a life wire.

What other metals you can easily sell large quantities of do you know are lying around unguarded? People might notice if you start dismanting power pylons and ripping out railroad tracks takes far more effort then the overhead power cables.

Re:Scum Bags

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be wise, since at random intervals I place a decoy sandwich in that fridge, with a few fish hooks hidden between the lettuce and the cheese.

Line test...

[Anonymous Coward]

For a while now, thieves in the UK have been testing whether an access pit contains copper or fibre by chucking a bit of petrol and a match in. If it burns green, they've hit the jackpot, they put it out and pinch the copper cabling. Otherwise they just sod off and leave it burning. Nice.

Re:Perhaps

[myov]

Won't stop them from trying.

About 10 years ago,cable modems across Ontario (Canada) were knocked off the AtHome network. Thieves dug up and cut the fibre thinking it was copper, then tried again with the backup.

That happened to my friend's relative...

[RulerOf]

That is why so many of them end up paying the ultimate price. Death as they cut a life wire.

I remember one day I was driving in to work listening to the radio and when they did the news stories I realized that I heard a familiar (and fairly unique) last name mentioned by the news lady. The next time the stories rolled around, it turned out that the story was that a would-be copper thief was electrocuted and died in the act, and he shared a last name with a very good friend of mine. Ironic, I thought.

A few days later, I'm visiting with my friend when he tells me that someone in his family died the week before trying to steal copper. [cleveland.com] One of the details that was left out of the news report though was that he wasn't working alone and was in fact left behind as dead by his surviving accomplices. Not that anyone in his family didn't think that he wasn't incredibly dumb for getting himself killed, but it was a shame nonetheless.

I never met the guy myself, and considering how tight-knit that family (or at least my friend's branch of it) is, I found myself surprised. However, given some of his obvious life choices (and friends... the men on that page look creepy as all hell) I'm not really surprised either :-P

Somebody tried to steal copper wire from my house

[TrogL]

They were after the grounding strap, which hopefully wasn't carrying much in the way of current. He'd already knocked the protective shield loose with a crowbar. The racket drew my attention. When I confronted him he told me exactly what he was doing and carried right on until I dragged out my cell phone and called it in.

Re:Scum Bags

[uglyduckling]

A hospital local to me had an outage a couple of years ago - someone had stolen the copper linking the back-up generators to the distribution board, there was a local planned power outage and the whole hospital went dark. Seriously low.

Re:Perhaps

[delinear]

That's because copper was then, and still is, pretty ubiquitous. A global move to fibre would result in thieves realising pretty quickly that there's no real money to be made there. It sounds like a better deterrent than DNA water - that's fine if you can catch the criminals, but it's not going to put the average criminal off trying, because he likely doesn't have the foggiest idea what it is. I'd also like to know what stops a thief bottling some of this DNA water and walking into the nearest nightclub and spraying everyone else, suddenly the police are looking for a needle in a haystack.

Re:Copper broadband?

[flnca]

There's a simple explanation to that: In the 90ies it was discovered that the maximum carrier frequency of fiber optics is around 1-2 GHz, while there's new milestones been reached over copper wire every couple of years. Nowadays we have 50 Gbit over copper wire (VDSL-50), that's impossible over fiber. Of course, if you combine many fibers, you can achieve the same rate, but it's probably much more expensive. However, it is being researched whether partial waves and multiple colors (wavelengths) can be used to increase fiber bandwith. Shortly after the reunification of Germany, East Germany has been equipped with vast amounts of fiber optics, which was being thought of the technology of the future, and now they won't get the higher transmission rates until additional copper cables have been laid. In West Germany, copper was always dominating, so we don't have any bandwidth limits here (depending on the quality of cables installed on the way to the home). The maximum I can get currently is 16 Gbit over copper wire.

Re:Perhaps

[david_thornley]

Silly person! I can't steal what I do own, can I?

Re:Copper broadband?

[petermgreen]

There's a simple explanation to that: In the 90ies it was discovered that the maximum carrier frequency of fiber optics is around 1-2 GHz
We have gone a bit higher than that, 10 gigabit over a single optical transciever is perfectly doable these days.

However, it is being researched whether partial waves and multiple colors (wavelengths) can be used to increase fiber bandwith
WDM is here and now, we even have optical amplifiers that can amplify the signals without splitting them out. Downside is that WDM gear is expensive so it's only worth it for long links.

East Germany has been equipped with vast amounts of fiber optics, which was being thought of the technology of the future, and now they won't get the higher transmission rates until additional copper cables have been laid.
As I understand it the issue there was one of network structure. Copper phone networks had dedicated lines for each subscriber and we have been able to push more and more out of those lines than anyone would previously thought possible. I've never heard of any tech that comes close to modern fiber speeds over anything vaugely resembling a phone pair though.

The problem with these old fiber installs was that they had fiber to a cabinet where there was some hardware that split it out. Upgrading all those cabinets iss extremely expensive and you still have to share the fiber running to the cabinet (which may or may not have been a good quality fiber).

Nowadays we have 50 Gbit over copper wire (VDSL-50)
Really?! care to provide a citation for that? All the searches i've done for VDSL-50 seem to reffer to 50 megabit products.

The maximum I can get currently is 16 Gbit over copper wire.
Again if true please provide a citation for this, it sounds like you have mixed up megabits and gigabits and written a BS post based on the mixup.

Re:Copper broadband?

[flnca]

We have gone a bit higher than that, 10 gigabit over a single optical transciever is perfectly doable these days.

Ah ok, I haven't followed the developments in the past couple of years.

Really?! care to provide a citation for that? All the searches i've done for VDSL-50 seem to reffer to 50 megabit products. (...) Again if true please provide a citation for this, it sounds like you have mixed up megabits and gigabits

Ah ... I'm terribly sorry, I guess I'm a bit tired ... of course I was referring to Mbit not Gbit!