Thieves toppled and stole the 200-foot tower of classic hits WJLX-AM (1240) in Jasper, AL. The theft was discovered late last week and also included the transmitter and other equipment.
Back when the price of scrap iron was pretty high some ne'er do wells cut up and removed a small dragline from a wildlife area near my place. It must have taken them weeks, but they got it done and were never seen in the process. They even kept a Portagee gate closed so the cows wouldn't get out. Very considerate.
Back in the 80s, crews in Louisiana were stealing oil drilling rigs by setting up a fake company with real money, hiring a labor crew and a trucking company to move a parked drilling rig (not theirs) to a new location, then coming with another trucking company to take the rig to another (unknown) location to repaint and sell it. John in Indy
I have been a ham radio operator since 1972. I never thought about this, but I bet a person could get a signal out pretty easily with a tower that tall.
Maybe its just me but, no one noticed or called them to say they were not on the air on AM anymore? Guess maybe since its not Alabama football season that means no one was listening to the 24 hour religious programing?
We had a renter house a few years back that was sitting vacant for a couple of weeks. During that time tweakers broke into the crawl space and ripped out the copper LP gas line from the tank to the a single inside heater. It might have been 60' of 1/2" copper with two brass fittings. Insurance had a $500 deductible and the gas company charged $400 to make everything copesetic. The tweakers might have got $12 at the scrap yard. Those same rocket scientists cut the catalytic converter off an old Chrysler New Yorker that was sitting in the barn when we bought the place and left their flashlight behind that had their name written on it. The law went to the guy and he confessed. He was in violation of his probation and to jail he went. That tower was only about 20 miles south of where I live. The local paper states it was near 70 years old and the small AM station, WJLX in Jasper, did not have insurance. They have started a Go Fund Me account.
There was yootoob vid about it. Apparently, the station has an outlet on FM as well (a translator, its called) so nobody even noticed the AM station was off the air, untill someone twigged the station to their missing tower.
Apparently, no sign of any activity like truck tracks or leftover metal bits from a demolition. The transmitter site is pretty sad sack. It could have been gone for a while.
Need an instantaneous death penalty for people who show up at scrap dealers with 'scrap' like this.
ReplyDeleteBack when the price of scrap iron was pretty high some ne'er do wells cut up and removed a small dragline from a wildlife area near my place. It must have taken them weeks, but they got it done and were never seen in the process. They even kept a Portagee gate closed so the cows wouldn't get out. Very considerate.
DeleteBack in the 80s, crews in Louisiana were stealing oil drilling rigs by setting up a fake company with real money, hiring a labor crew and a trucking company to move a parked drilling rig (not theirs) to a new location, then coming with another trucking company to take the rig to another (unknown) location to repaint and sell it.
ReplyDeleteJohn in Indy
I have been a ham radio operator since 1972. I never thought about this, but I bet a person could get a signal out pretty easily with a tower that tall.
ReplyDeleteThat's some South Africa level shit there.
ReplyDeleteSteve S6
Maybe its just me but, no one noticed or called them to say they were not on the air on AM anymore? Guess maybe since its not Alabama football season that means no one was listening to the 24 hour religious programing?
ReplyDeleteWe had a renter house a few years back that was sitting vacant for a couple of weeks. During that time tweakers broke into the crawl space and ripped out the copper LP gas line from the tank to the a single inside heater. It might have been 60' of 1/2" copper with two brass fittings. Insurance had a $500 deductible and the gas company charged $400 to make everything copesetic. The tweakers might have got $12 at the scrap yard.
ReplyDeleteThose same rocket scientists cut the catalytic converter off an old Chrysler New Yorker that was sitting in the barn when we bought the place and left their flashlight behind that had their name written on it. The law went to the guy and he confessed. He was in violation of his probation and to jail he went. That tower was only about 20 miles south of where I live. The local paper states it was near 70 years old and the small AM station, WJLX in Jasper, did not have insurance. They have started a Go Fund Me account.
There was yootoob vid about it. Apparently, the station has an outlet on FM as well (a translator, its called) so nobody even noticed the AM station was off the air, untill someone twigged the station to their missing tower.
ReplyDeleteApparently, no sign of any activity like truck tracks or leftover metal bits from a demolition. The transmitter site is pretty sad sack. It could have been gone for a while.