Metal thieves have struck again in Santa Ana. This time “Copper signs worth an estimated $20,000 vanished…from the Sandpointe neighborhood,” according to the O.C. Register.
“The letters were cemented to the walls and had been there for about 20 years, said Bob Black, the president of the Sandpointe Neighborhood Association. He said the estimate to replace all 40 stolen letters came to around $20,000.”
All that is left of the copper sign is the marks you can see in the picture above, which was taken by City Council candidate Jim Walker, who also lives in the Sandpointe neighborhood. According to our blogger Thomas Gordon, this neighborhood has also been plagued by graffiti taggers of late.
Of course the Register’s readers have assumed that the miscreants in the Sandpointe theft are Latinos. Here is a typical comment, “The third world strikes again. Why should we be forced to live amongst this scum? This was one of the only nice areas left in Santa Ana (in the South Coast Metro area). Now they can’t even have their own community signs without some dumb savages ripping them off. Who else looks at a sign for a community and sees scrap metal that they can sell? This wasn’t happening in O.C. twenty years ago. Now it’s common. Can anyone think about something that happened twenty years ago that led to all of this c-rap that we have to deal with today? I’ll give you a hint: Amnesty.“
The last time this happened, two homeless men who were NOT Latino were busted for stealing bronze plaques from historical buildings in the downtown area, minutes from the Santa Ana police station.
The O.C. Register also reported recently that “a third Art in Public Places piece has been ripped from its post in a local industrial complex” in Brea. “Each was worth an estimated $20,000.”
The bad news for Brea residents is that the art thieves likely chopped up the artwork so they could sell it to scrap yards without anyone realizing what the scrap was. Still, shouldn’t the scrap yards be wondering what is up when folks show up with hundreds of pounds of valuable metals? Where would people come across such scrap if they weren’t thieves? It sounds like we need to crack down on the scrap yards. They appear to be somewhat complicit in these crimes.
Really, you can’t blame the homeless and crackheads (white, black and brown) for doing this because the demand created by and ease to cash in by the yards created this problem. It’s also not just a SA problem either, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-01-15-autocat_N.htm. Now, the fact that the city has allowed so many yards to exist here is what needs to be addressed. I once had an officer tell me that the SAPD could sit at the yard at the end of Poinsettia and 5th and fill paddy wagon after paddy wagon with “crooks” but that they just don’t have the time.
What does that tell you?
SAPD is not going to sit at a recycle yard all day and try to arrest “crooks” unless of course there’s a donut shop across the street. Have you seen the size of SAPD officers? How is that weight challenge with OC Deputies going?
If people don’t want things stolen then they should make them harder to steal. As long as it’s easy to take this metal and cash it in then there will be those who have been dealt a bad hand by life and are in need who will take them. If it goes from a rich person or gov agency to a poor person then isn’t that what helping our fellow man is all about? Seems like this is a victimless crime.
I wonder if Councilman Carlos Bustamante will cry at the next council meeting like he did when he thought he was not going to get the center median up here on Flower that he promised us all he would get for us. that idiot got the city to use gas tax money meant for roads on a bunch of grass and tress and sprinklers. I wonder if Councilman Carlos Bustamante will offer to have the city buty new letters for this neighborhood down south, or better yet, maybe that idiot Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez can suck some money out of he pal robert bisno to pay for them since that dumb broad said that there was almost no crime here in town.
My neighborhood has some rich-looking copper lettering on our entry monument. But it’s just copper colored plastic. Vandals might steal it for fun, but not for cash.
“if you don’t want your things stolen, you should make them harder to steal”
Are you friggin serious? Maybe we should make them harder to steal by imparting a conscience and sense of propriety in our children. Maybe we should lock down our borders so there is over crowding here and force immigrants to take responsibility for there own country. Maybe we should round up the homeless and offer them jobs we currently offer inmates and misdemeanor offenders and give them a sense of accomplishment and worth. Maybe you should have listened in class.
I also heard thieves were stealing copper wires right out of the traffic lights in Los Angeles. Yes, it’s abhorrent, but it’s a sign of the times (forgive the pun). The metal is more valuable than the dire consequences to steal it. The poor will do what they have to in order to survive.