Vandalism and Theft on Rise: Insiders and Copper Thieves Get More Brazen

In Pennsylvania, it may be an insider who drove a $500,000 excavator over a cliff after stealing it from the Reading Anthracite Company. The wrecked $500,000 machine is just the latest in a wave of vandalism at the firm. Says a company spokesperson: You need to be a trained operator to operate a machine like this. You need to know the controls and the keys were not in the machine. We remove all our keys. Someone apparently had a key and you clearly see they were able to drive it where they went over the bank

In numerous Midwestern states, individuals and gangs have been stealing expensive farm equipment and metals.

And then there are modern day train robbers.

For example, in Illinois, authorities are looking for the person or people who stole more than 15,000 feet of insulated solid copper wire from telephone poles near railroad tracks in Genoa. The wire was pulled off telephone poles that run parallel to the railroad tracks. The wiring was part of a redundancy the railroad has in its communication system.