Copper theft

[australiantroubleman]

We are having big problems with copper thieves , stealing grounding conductors from poles , breaking into substations and taking all the copper that isn't mounted on insulators .
The thieves are becoming more brazen as the price of scrap copper escalates.
Its getting to the stage that you have to inspect everything closely before you touch any equipment to make sure its still earthed correctly.
We have lost bays of copper secondary overnight we arrive to a no power call and the mains have been stolen .
We are now replacing any copper stolen from poles with aluminium where possible , this seems to stop them stealing the new conductor a few weeks later.
They are stealing railway signal cables and traction equipment too .

Is this a world wide occurrence or it it just aussie thieves that are indulging in this crime?