Marine Bombing Range Becoming Popular With Scrap Metal Hunters - AP

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (AP) -- Hundreds of Marines were conducting a combat training mission in the Mojave Desert when an air patrol spotted something kicking up dust: A civilian pickup truck speeding across the barren landscape. Behind the wheel was a suspected scrap metal thief who had been combing the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center for spent brass shell casings. His intrusion onto the base was the 12th time in six months that scavengers had inadvertently halted combat exercises.

Bombing ranges have become prime hunting grounds for so-called "scrappers," who are motivated by soaring commodity prices to take greater risks in their quest for brass, copper and aluminum. The scavenging causes headaches for the military, which cannot patrol every inch of the remote bases where spent ammunition, shrapnel and unexploded ordnance are easy to find.

"This is not just some petty crime. This is dangerous business," said Andy Chatelin, director of range management at Twentynine Palms, which at 932 square miles is the world's largest Marine Corps base.

Illegal scavenging of military munitions has long been an issue at military bases. But as metal prices have climbed in the past two years, scavengers have become more numerous, more audacious and more sophisticated. After he was spotted by troops last December, the pickup truck driver barreled directly at a Marine, who fired five shots at the vehicle. The driver swerved, flipped over and spilled hundreds of dollars in collected metal. He was taken by helicopter to a hospital and later charged with attempted murder.

EDIT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MILITARY_SCRAP_METAL?SITE=FLDAY&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-05-13-08-56-16

and even luckier to get helicoptered out of there. Screw him.

This was at the least a thief, and potentially a terrorist looking for unexploded munitions.

Gets no sympathy from me.

:woohoo: :nuke: :woohoo: :nuke:

:hi:

> His intrusion onto the base was the 12th time in six months that
> scavengers had inadvertently halted combat exercises.

... namely DON'T stop combat exercises and let Darwin sort it out.

:shrug:

Long Beach has become the latest target in a worldwide epidemic of manhole-cover larceny, authorities say. Nearly 50 of the 150-pound, cast-iron lids have been swiped from roadways and alleys in the last eight months -- with 17 taken in just the last week, authorities said Monday.

Seven disappeared Sunday night in the northwest section of the city, say administrators of the Long Beach Water Department.

"We think a team may be involved. It's two people, at least," said Ryan Alsop, governmental and public affairs director for the water department. "It's become a problem, and it's getting worse."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-manhole6-2008may06,0,3724024.story

Copper rain gutters and down spouts are missing from churches in and around Boston.

A big problem with foreclosed on homes, people going into them to strip out the copper pipes. I am waiting for Banks to start to do what they did in the 1930s, foreclose on homes, but then tell the tenants they can stay in the house without paying rent, thus someone is on the house to prevent striper's from going into it.

A local 1900 era hotel and Bar was closed last year do to a gas leak, the owner was behind on the gas bill so she could NOT get it turned back on, so she abandoned the place. Within months most of the copper had been stripped, even if the cost was to leave the water run, the old furnace was removed, if they was a market for it, it was striped from the building. It is now a wreck and I am waiting for the City to condemn it and tear it down (The owner has moved out of state). This is NOT unusual, mostly drug addicts doing the Scrapping (They need the money for their habit). Just bad and getting worse.

Theres F-16s everywhere and its radar is useful at identifying moving targets.

Going into a combat range with the intention of stealing is an act that requires action in my view. Unexploded items could be used to do harm to others so I would rather those assholes eat a Maverick Missile than get away with explosives.

And no ranges are NEVER 100 percent free of explosives.

They want Copper and Aluminum, both with high demand and thus high price.

Not everyone who goes to every range is a peace loving scrap metal hunter as evidenced when one tried to run down a Marine.

The explosives that did not go off in these ranges are not old TNT they are advanced explosives designed to kill tanks and fortified positions. We CAN'T allow this to go on else they may actually get their hands on some. And don't think they would not sell it on the black market....

If they can be arrested.. Yes please do. But if they are almost getting away I would rather them be taken out then ship possibly high explosives to the black market.

In the US the main source of Nitrate Explosives is Fertilizer. When mixed with Diesel is a fairly stable explosives. Given that neither Fertilizer nor Diesel is regulated in the US (due to the fact 99% of them are used for intended purposes which leave no trace (nothing to be returned to the Seller, i.e fertilized crops or used in Diesel engines). Gasoline can be substituted for Diesel, but the resulting explosive is considered unstable.

AS to the "Advance Munitions", most actual munitions research pealed before WWII, what has been the "improvements" since WWII has been the ability to use these explosives in a more efficient way (Mostly do to electronics). The biggest non-electronic improvement has been the widespread introduction of dual shape charges (i.e. instead of one sharp charged as used in the WWII eras Bazooka and the Vietnam Era LAW anti-tank Rockets, these newer rockets have two back to back shaped charges design to explode in tandem, i.e. right after each other, to better defeat modern Armor). The problem is this type of explosive is ready available world wide in various legal or semi-legal arms markets and the people;e who want them want them INTACT not in pieces as you will find in a Range.

The other big improvement (again excluding Electronics such as wire, vision and laser guided Weapons) ha been the Discarding Sabot round. While not generally available in the legal or semi-legal arms market, a buyer must have the whole round NOT Pieces. And by whole round I mean not only what was fired, but what pushed the round out of the Barrel. Again NOT something a Scrapper can get (Or if he can get, you don't have a problem with Scrappers but someone selling live ammunition straight from the Ammo Dump).

Thus if you look at what people can sell in the US, explosives are NOT high on the list. What is high is Copper and Aluminum in the electronics of modern Weapons. The Scrappers do NOT want the explosives, they want the metal, which was the point I was trying to make.

No the Scrappers do get explosives, duds for example. These the Scrappers pick up with the Scrap. Which can lead to explosions when they later trying to disassemble the scrap OR when the Scrap in processed by a Scrap yard and the explosive is still in part of the Scrap sold to them. While thee problems occur, they are incidental to what these Scrapper are after.