I don’t want to go fully into the whole, it’s the end of the world as we know it thing.
But for sure, these are some crazy times we live in. The fact that I’m now having to lock down the HVAC equipment to keep thieves from it is clear evidence. Yes, times have changed and living out in the suburbs isn’t a surefire way of avoiding the darker parts of living in this society. And what’s so weird about this HVAC equipment business is the fact that they aren’t even stealing the HVAC equipment. No, it’s far worse than that. I’ve actually witnessed the aftermath of one of these HVAC burglaries. The thieves use just a smash and grab concept when it comes to getting what they want from the HVAC cabinet. And again, it’s not the valuable residential HVAC components at all. Those valuable heating and cooling parts end up strewn across the lawn as though the HVAC cabinet was hit with some sort of mini tornado. What these desperate people are after are the copper fittings inside the HVAC cabinet. It’s all about a few handfuls of copper that can immediately be sold on the black market for pennies on the dollar. It’d be one thing if they were taking the valuable HVAC parts. But to do all that damage for a bit of copper and a few bucks? That seems like madness to me. To avoid the madness, I’m now locking down the HVAC cabinet with a cage I can lock to the concrete pad. I guess that’s where we are these days.