What's there in a demo worth stealing?

Randy88 · 2014-07-13T12:37:42.000Z

I'm on a job right now, to demo an entire building site and level it off, so when we're done, it'll end up gone and only the memory remains of a farmstead. We've been doing a lot of these lately to eliminate taxes and liability issues and having to deal with renters. We've been held up a week, waiting for the renter to move the last of his stuff out, so the owner can salvage the stuff he wanted out of the house, new furnace, water heater, all the appliances and so fourth and I got a call a day ago, the owner finally got into the house, and its stripped to the bone, and I mean stripped, never in my life have I ever seen anything like it before, and I've demoed a lot of stuff over the years. I have no idea what it looked like beforehand, but come on, why would anyone steal the old carpet and flooring under it, or the linoleum off the floors, bat insulation out of the walls, sheet rock off the walls, better yet how the heck did he get the old sheet rock off the walls intact and take those too, he jerked all the copper wires out of the walls, the entire plumbing out of the entire house, even the cast iron sewer pipe going out of the wall to the septic was gone. I walked through what was left of the house, no windows, siding left during the night before I got there, even the insulation under the siding was gone, not sure what good it was, but I don't need to worry about it anyhow. Well the weather turned bad and we broke down with one of my machines, everyone was soaked and I was told there's another day coming, start up again in the morning, and we left. Got a call two hours later, the owner went back to check on the place just before dark, and the renter was back, pulling up the old pine flooring and hauling them out too. Come on seriously can old junk out of a house be worth anything, really? Is there a market for old used sheet rock or cut up linoleum off the floors, the steel and wiring I could see selling for junk price, I'd figure the furnace and water heater someone would buy, but the rest, old pine flooring 100 plus years old that never had a day of care in their life, worn to the nub and the nails sticking out of it? Is demoing these kinds of places destroying undiscovered gold mines I'm just not seeing or what? The stuff has to be worth something or nobody would take the time to remove it and steal it, but come on seriously is it worth the effort? Is there some trading place to go to buy used sheet rock and linoleum too small to use again? He even stole the outlet boxes out of the walls, and light fixture boxes out of the ceiling, I can go to menards and buy them for a couple bucks each new, and it would take me an hour to get each one out if I were trying to save it. He even wanted the roof, claimed he had someone that would buy it, is there a used shot roof sales place where you can go buy a used leaky worthless roof? The wood under it was rotten, he didn't want that, just the roof itself. The owner took it in stride and didn't blow a gasket, claims if he did press charges, the owner had far more to lose than the thief, just to get him out of the area and away from him was his goal. We thought maybe he was trying to cover up something so we had the sheriff out to look at it, maybe a murder scene, drugs if you remove the evidence, there is nothing to prosecute with, but the sheriff said no, by the looks of it, he was after the materials, even took some samples for drugs and claimed there was nothing there or had been nothing there. Even he asked the same thing, is this stuff worth anything, would anyone pay anything for it, if so, why won't anyone tear down old houses for the materials. He claimed he had never seen anything like it before, and I told him we've got to be missing something and so he made a few calls and had some others out to look, all claimed it was the materials he was after, not hiding or covering up anything. The only thing the sheriff had to say was, is the guy smart enough to know what he stole wasn't worth stealing?? Which brought about the next question, do you want the stuff back, and the owner said, to do what with, burn or throw away, not really was the reply.

KSSSSenior MemberFeb 10, 2026#41

CM1995 said: That's similar to what we do now with our equipment - leave all the doors and compartments unlocked. If they are going to steal the batteries at least I don't have to buy new batteries and a new door + lock. Same with the cabs - if they are locked they'll bust the glass to rummage through to find nothing. Leave them unlocked and hopefully the glass stays intact. Click to expand... Typically we do the same thing. Generally it works out, except this one time in the late Fall, it was cold at night. We were installing a new sewer line at Mall type complex. Came back to the next morning to continue work, went to the mini ex and someone had spent the night in my machine. Absolutely stunk, trash in the inside, smelled of smoke. Had to keep the doors and windows all day just to run it. That sucked.

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