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As Price of Lead Soars, British Churches Find Holes in Roof
It is described as the most serious assault on British churches since the Reformation; the roofs of course are made partly of lead. And here are stories from the U.S. In some cases entire neighborhoods are being rendered uninhabitable by the boom in commodities prices and the induced theft.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on April 8, 2008 at 10:17 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink
Comments
The local crack addict in my charming English village (OK, grotty suburb) has started stealing lead from roofs on the high street recently. I hope the commodity bubble burst soon - he's reached two properties down from my house. Who says these guys don't respond to incentives? Or should be blame The Wire for giving junkies the scrap metal dealing idea?
Posted by: Luis Enrique at Apr 8, 2008 10:31:24 AM
My memory on this goes back about 60 years. Every time lead prices have been near a peak, lead roofed churches in Britain have become targets for those who supply scrap merchants. In the past, these reports have been a signal to go short on lead futures.
Posted by: David Heigham at Apr 8, 2008 10:34:02 AM
This is hardly a new phenomenon: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Colosseum-Entrance_LII.jpg
Posted by: Bill at Apr 8, 2008 11:24:59 AM
Another serious problem in the UK is theft of cable from train lines. At least once a week trains in my region are delayed because of a theft that is almost impossible to police.
Posted by: tom at Apr 8, 2008 11:26:26 AM
Window A/C units have copper that makes them worth stealing; in Jackson, MS, it's anecdotally common knowledge that you can't keep a window unit in some parts of town.
Posted by: Anderson at Apr 8, 2008 11:31:06 AM
So let's kill the market. Automatic 5 years in jail for scrap-metal dealers that buy stolen goods. Scumbag-enablers are worse than the scumbags themselves.
Posted by: Sam at Apr 8, 2008 12:02:35 PM
And not coincidentally, the cost of those .45 caliber theft deterrent devices are also skyrocketing.
Posted by: mobile at Apr 8, 2008 12:18:43 PM
sam said "let's kill the market." that's funny.
Posted by: shawn at Apr 8, 2008 1:12:42 PM
The copper was stolen out of all the portable classroom air conditioners in the district where my mother works earlier this year.
Posted by: Nate at Apr 8, 2008 1:20:45 PM
What do we call that point in Roman history where peasants keep stealing the stones out of the roads to build their walls with?
Because it sounds like we're there.
Posted by: Anderson at Apr 8, 2008 4:25:38 PM
"It is described as the most serious assault on British churches since the Reformation".
I don't know. The Luftwaffe was pretty bad too.
Posted by: Dan Ryan at Apr 9, 2008 12:55:48 AM
