South Africa: Metal thieves 'steal 10km of railway'

[DSY011]

Metal thieves in South Africa have stolen nearly 10km (6 miles) of working railway track, causing about $2.3m (£1.3m) of damage, it's emerged.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-f...where-28311240

Chunks of track were stolen over the course of several months from a line used to take trains from Johannesburg to a depot in the town of Nigel, The Star newspaper reports. Five men have appeared in court after being "caught in the act" by the security guards who patrol the track, the paper says.

[62440]

"Security Guards who patrol the track"? Patrol about twice a year by the looks of things!

Regards, 62440.

[27vet]

Metal theft is rife, particularly electric cable and they also steal motorway barriers and manhole covers. Every week, if not more often, electric cable gets stolen. This has caused the Gautrain to shut down on more than one occasion. Cable is also stolen from the electricity grid, and the fuddy ruckers usually steal the neutral cable causing the voltage to surge up to 400 volts. Affected consumers lose a lot of appliances as a result. Just recently a cable thief was electrocuted and ended up hanging from the electricity pole for all to see for several hours. Unfortunately, they are so stupid that death isn't an effective deterrent.

[Torquay]

Hi Syd and all, this incident is only the tip of the iceberg as you and Ralph 27vet know in the 6 months i was there recently, cable theft happened on a number of occasions,one has only got to look at the railway sidings to see how many roads are left, but this has been going on for years, even stealing gravestones has been big business for some years now, anything where money can be made they are into it, and so are the Police.
Tony.