[LINK] Another reason to go with Optical fibre....

[Marghanita da Cruz]

>  06/30/2011
>  
> 'Stealing Like Magpies'
> Spike in Metal Theft Imperils German Railways
....
> Easy Pickings
> 
> Metal thieves don't just target train tracks and stations. They also steal iron storm drains from streets, copper roofs from churches and rain gutters from private homes. But the railway is especially vulnerable. Signaling and safety cables, as well those for communications and operating switches and street crossings, are often located right next to the tracks, inside easily accessible and poorly secured concrete shafts.
> 
> Cable spools, masts for overhead electrical lines and the steel cables used to anchor them all lie stacked up in the open along sections of track under construction. Country roads nearly always run parallel to the tracks, making it easy for thieves to escape with their stolen goods. Sneaking in, loading up and driving away is all it takes. "They steal like magpies," says one federal police officer.
> 
> A few examples of metal theft in recent weeks make it clear that metal thieves have come to see DB facilities as something akin to a self-service store:
> 
> . June 6, Dortmund: 900 meters (3,000 feet) of copper cable and 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of scrap copper pilfered from the grounds of a transformer station.
> 
> . May 26, Lahn-Dill District: Unknown individuals cut through and remove 24 grounding cables from power masts along the railway line from Giessen to Cologne.
> 
> . May 19, Du"ren: Thieves attempt to detach fiber optic cables and signaling cables. The cables are destroyed, causing radio communications between the control center and signal boxes to fail.
> 
> . May 12, Munich: Unknown perpetrators manage to load a ton of cable into a vehicle at a construction site at Pasing train station within 10 minutes. Witnesses assume the theft is ordinary transportation work on the part of Deutsche Bahn.
<http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,770870,00.html>
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://ramin.com.au
Tel: 0414-869202