Marines track down metal thieves on their own bases

[Hon'ya-chan]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MN5C10LJ34.DTL

Bombing ranges have become prime hunting grounds for "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.

Gotta love Darwinism:

In May 2007, two scrappers suspects removed a Vietnam-era missile from the Twentynine Palms base. It later exploded in their home in Barstow (San Bernardino County), killing both men and destroying the apartment.

[lordlundar]

Well, if those thieves want to roam around UXOs for their money, I won't stop them. Natual selection at it's finest there.

[Rine]

Who would even risk messing with the military? I live near Eglin AFB and it's about 750-ish sq miles and most of the borders are open, too because you can't fence in that many miles of wilderness. With the amount of bombs they drop there, I would never risk going near their bombing ranges for scrap metal and whatnot.

I mean, you can usually drive through parts of the base were roads run through the wilderness. They don't bomb out that way and if they do, they close the roads down. I've seen them do survival exercises...bit weird going over a bridge and looking down at the river to see a bunch of men decked out in camo and war paint floating by on a raft.

I wonder if the bases around here have problems with scrappers. I never even though that people would be that bold to do this sort of thing.