Two men arrested over theft of 1,200 meters of copper cable

Two Sri Lankan men have been arrested on suspicion of stealing copper cable from a power generation facility in Yamagata Prefecture.

Another foreign criminal? However this time not Vietnamese?

Let us know who is purchasing this copper from them!??

The current market value of the cable is said to be 5.06 million yen.

The cost of the damage is likely to be many times that amount.

Multiculturalism has it's downside. If you add up all the extra costs is it really worth it?

@Mr Kipling

Multiculturalism has it's downside. If you add up all the extra costs is it really worth it?

It's nothing about multiculturalism, Japan addicted and decide to open for cheap labor, do you think middle class people with university degree holder will apply with that job? Or people with money problem will apply for those job?

 Japan addicted and decide to open for cheap labor,

open for cheap labour, from outside japan. So yes, it has to do with multiculturalism.

Thought the Sri lankans here mainly sold cars , perhaps this is the new side hustle ?

The theft of copper cables causes major problems and disruptions of services. Foreigners are not the only ones who steal them.

The theft of copper cables causes major problems and disruptions of services. Foreigners are not the only ones who steal them.

In Japan, it pretty much is only foreigners who are stealing cables. Who they sell them to is probably Japanese.

Copper is also bought by Japanese scrap dealers, which is a crime. The police need to pursue those dealers.

No one seeing a large home renovation with new electrics throughout ?

How'd I guess they weren't Japanese

It Soviet Union,China, Vietnam or North Korea anyone thefting of public facilities will be sentenced to death. Copper cables were high value of stuffs in black market !

Glad the coppers got these two despicable people. Prison time followed by deportation.

Just deport them and their alliances if any.

1,200 meters of copper cable ... current market value of the cable is said to be 5.06 million yen.

A slight aside but if cable is 4000 yen a meter, that's the same price as getting toward hardcore audiophile (nutter/bore) level speaker cable. Way more expensive than anything you'd find at Yamada Denki. Presumably they chopped it up, but whatever 1.2km of cable was stolen here was carried by two of them and is therefore probably not that thick and heavy.

The reason I bring this up is we are talking about everyone switching to electric cars. This begs the question of whether the grid can handle it in terms of capacity and distribution. Giving lots of people fast charging at home would require masses of copper. Someone is going to have to pay for this, at a high price per meter.

The article does not say the size of the copper cable. It does not say if the cable was in use or storage or just lying around. If the cable had a protective sheath it would have less value to the scrap dealer.

At ¥4000/meter it have been large size and heavy.

When I was an electrical engineer we stripped the plastic from the cable to get a better scrap price.

It is important to find out who is the dealer who is buying these stolen copper cables and what he did with them.

1200 m cables, worth more than 5 million yen, is not something like shoplifting or pickpocketing.

It's organized crime, done by habitual criminals.

About these 2 foreigners, who were stealing them from this power generation facility in a rural area, prison and followed by deportation.

Was it coiled, unsheathed drummed stock? Or a rip-out, I suspect the former 'cos no mention of power interruption. Yo, sounds like they were targeted as legs by the true profit makers. let's wait and see. They got any gambling debts???

Another sad sign of times, economy in shambles as Yen real asset, like copper, purchasing power continues to collapse.

Central Bank Money Printing & Global Proxy Wars = destroys real asset purchasing power of ALL Currencies

You can see the cable here. It looks like it was cut into 6m lengths, and is some kind of high-voltage four-core power cable that was still sheathed and would need stripping. Based on the guy's hand, it looks 7cm or so in diameter, with the internal cores being 15mm or so of multistranded copper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1iqYCk1cPw

Anyway, if that is 5 million yen worth of cable, I would worry about the cost of introducing lots of electric car charging. Fast charging is 50kW+, way more juice than a house uses.

Glad the coppers got these two despicable people. Prison time followed by deportation.

Coppers save copper.

Another sad sign of times, economy in shambles as Yen real asset, like copper, purchasing power continues to collapse.

In October 2024, Japan's imports of refined copper were ¥872 million, while its exports were ¥90.1 billion. 

Between October 2023 and October 2024, Japan's refined copper exports increased by ¥25.6 billion, while its imports decreased by ¥310 million. 

In August 2024, Japan's copper ore imports were valued at $1065.2215 million. 

In May 2024, Japan's copper ore imports were valued at $1322.1811 million. 

In 2023, Japan imported plate, sheet, and strip of copper alloy from around the world. 

In 2024, Japan's imports of copper were valued at $3.37 billion.

Wallace, please,

Japan (predominantly volcanics) has very few natural metallic mineral sources! No granitoids or Fe bearing sedimentary. The collapse of the yen is just a fundamental cause of deficits etc 'cos jpn obviously continued to develop housing, rail, utilities? cable from power generation is HV, at least they did not get the busbar.

Hmm.

Let me tell you a wee secret.

You know those chaps from Yamada Denki who are contracted to install or replace your air conditioning?

What do you think they do with the surplus cut copper piping?

Food for thought.

Increasing amount of more serious crimes now being committed by immigrants from third world nations. This is very concerning for all decent residents of Japan.

mynihon23 Today  12:18 pm JST

Just deport them and their alliances if any.

Jail them first for a while. Then deport them.

Deportation alone would be too light a punishment.

Maybe they thought they were performing a community service... copper cables are being removed in the UK as fibre is due to replace all of them for telecoms by this year. Probably some delay.

"Two men arrested over theft of 1,200 meters of copper cable."

Just ship them back to Sri Lanka in a container.

Some people will go to just about any lengths to make a dis-honest buck, or yen. If they put some effort into it, they could make money honestly.