Originally Posted by
indyfabz
Metal tools can be sold for scrap. I used to work in the rail industry. I know of several instances where people went to the effort of removing things like spikes, anchors and tie plates from the track structures.
Copper yes, people steal wire all the time. Aluminum cans. But last I looked (granted it was 50 years ago), steel was dirt cheap for scrap. It's not like the third world where people grind knives out of broken pieces of hard steel leaf spring. I'm guessing the tools were stolen to use, especially Park tools; or sold or bartered for other stuff; most of the homeless encampments have tons of stolen bikes, including our local rental bikes that have wheel locks cut and locator disabled. One of the good sanctioned camps I visited some years back (very clean, people nice), their bike fleet was all legit but none working, I brought over my tools one day and got 4 of 6 of them roadworthy.