Ulterior motive

[ICE]

I was sent to a neighboring city to perform a plumbing inspection. An apartment complex was re-piped with copper. There was plenty of it on the exterior of the building. The plumber had caused a fire. That is when the County became aware and hence, I was sent to take over inspections. If the County sent me, the reason was seldom stated out in the open. If a contractor tried tall dogging me I would remind him that I was sent on purpose to fulfill a purpose.

The only thing that I liked about this job was that most of it was on the exterior. Everything on the interior was done again by a real plumber. Much of the pipe on the exterior had to be redone for the simple installation of insulation.

Consider the situation from the owner's perspective. He has an apartment complex of a few hundred units in a less than desirable location. The plumbing is failing at a rate that requires action. So what to do? Well no matter what, the place will experience 100% occupancy. Well then let's save a small fortune and create the ugliest apartment complex in the already undesirable part of town. But lo and behold, you now landed on Go Directly To Jail. The non-plumber, plumber lit the joint on fire and up pops the weasel.
That handyman that was recommended reached a hand right into your pocket, snagged your wallet and stole your watch ... he smiled on the way out the door. You get to do everything twice and when it's all said and done it's crap none the less.

 

[e hilton]

I have seen joints like that before … the first ones I did.

 

[Mr. Inspector]

How long does copper last in a less than desirable location on the outside of a building before it gets stolen?

 

[ICE]

How long does copper last in a less than desirable location on the outside of a building before it gets stolen?

I( wouldn't know about that. It's all second story and rooftop so that might slow them down. This was 2004 and copper theft might not have been as rampant.

 

[Yikes]

I was once driving through a sketchy part of LA and saw a huge coil of copper tubing on an industrial sized spool sitting out in towards the side of the road, and I thought, those people are crazy - - don't they know how quickly this will get stolen?

Then I realized: it had already been stolen, and this was just its interim destination.

 

[ICE]

There was a car sitting in a wide spot of the shoulder that I passed by every day for about a month. It kept getting smaller until it was a skeleton. The last time that I saw it, there was a guy looking it over… his car was the same model as the derelict one.