Manhole cover theft

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Missing Manhole.jpg Manhole cover theft is the phenomenon of manhole covers being stolen, usually for resale as scrap. Long considered to be a childish prank in the United States, this type of theft is often expensive to municipalities, and dangerous to their residents.

It first became a serious problem in India and China, where missing manhole covers have caused eight deaths so far. Hundreds of manhole covers are stolen in the city of Bangalore, India every month. In Newham, East London, nearly 200 grates and covers were stolen.

In the city of Calcutta, India more than 10,000 manhole covers were taken in two months. These were replaced with concrete covers, but these were also stolen, this time for the iron rods inside them. The thieves were believed to be buying lottery tickets with the money.

Missing covers and grates may cause disappearances, deaths, and damage to vehicles.

According to China's Xinhua news agency, about "240,000 manhole and street-drain covers were stolen in Beijing in 2004." <ref>Archived version of "Putting a lid on rampant manhole theft" at CNN (now inaccessible original)</ref>

1 Thefts
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

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Thefts

Location	Number	Type	Date	Reason
Columbus, Ohio	25	Grates and covers	August 2003
Hong Kong	8	Manhole covers and gutterbox grates	January 2004
Shanghai, China	1,826	Manhole covers	January 2004
Johannesburg, South Africa	380	Covers	August 2004 to January 2005
Milwaukee, Wisconsin	more than 160	Grates	since January 1, 2004
Gloucester, England	48	Covers	March 11, 2004
Fife, Scotland	50	Covers	October 2004
Aberdeen, Scotland	130	Covers	2004
Indianapolis, Indiana	dozens	Covers and sewer grates	2006	Scrap?
Detroit Lakes, Minnesota	1	Cover	Unknown
Daegu, South Korea	100s	Misc. steel	Unknown
Vail, Colorado	Unknown	Covers	Unknown	Taken as souvenirs
Prague, Czech Republic	20 per day	Unknown	Unknown	Protest by homeless people facing eviction from sewer systems<ref>Manhole covers stolen in Prague by homeless people in protest against being evicted from sewer systems</ref>
Powys	40	Unknown	Unknown