For years crack addicts have been breaking into homes all across America stealing the copper piping to scrap and buy drugs. With the price of precious skyrocketing more and more people are selling their metals for cash.  In England the theft of copper rails from the railroads has reached epidemic proportions.

With the costs now running into the millions of British pounds operator Network Rail is looking for new ways to curb the theft. From the beginning of the year through April more than 3,000 thefts of copper rail have been reported, an increase of almost 75%.

So far Network Rail estimates it has cost them multiple millions of pounds in material and millions more in efforts to catch the criminals, and millions more in compensation to train companies due to delays because of down track time.

Sheffield Hooligans

Known for their vociferous and often violent soccer fans, the town of Sheffield is also the copper rail theft capital of the world. The situation has gotten so dire that Network Rail has initiated 24-hour crews to two and keep a watchful eye on the valuable track. Part of this may be that Sheffield is the steel capital of Great Britain.

Most of the thefts are carried out by casual criminals, stealing small amounts of copper and selling it on to scrap metal dealers to fund drug or alcohol habits, according to the British Transport Police. I wonder do they have online theft classes in the UK?