In the American city of Oakland, traffic lights have now started to be replaced with stop signs because someone is stealing the traffic lights, which contain copper.
Copper is not just the 29th element in the periodic table. The metal is also extremely valuable, and it is starting to become a serious problem in the American city of Oakland.
Someone simply cuts down the city's traffic lights to steal the copper in the wires, the traffic lights, among other things. consists of.
CBS News writes that.
According to locals and business owners, it is the city's homeless who cut down the traffic lights, steal them and take the copper, which they hope to resell.
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The city government in Oakland has now stepped in with a temporary, but much cheaper unloading. Where traffic lights are missing, stop signs have been put up instead.
In the beginning, the city government replaced the lost traffic lights when they disappeared. But when the light regulation was back in place, it wasn't long before they were gone again.
According to Tam Le, a mechanic in town, there is only one way to stop the thefts. It is about giving the homeless better conditions.
However, traffic lights are not the only thing that disappears from the street. Cars do that too. In some places in the United States, car theft is such a big problem that the cars that are found abandoned again fill entire streets. The police do not have enough storage space. Read more about it here .
Read more exciting news from and about the world of cars right here!