- Which one do you think is worth more: sand or manhole covers?
It’s easy to understand why criminals steal some things, like jewelry, electronics, or cars. Some commonly stolen objects, however, boggle the mind.
You’d be shocked by the absolutely insane things people steal with surprising regularity. It’s often because there’s some kind of hidden value to them.
That, or they’re easy to take and can get you some pocket money.
Here are 9 odd things that get stolen with surprising regularity.
1. X-rays
Have you ever wondered what doctors do with X-ray images after they’re taken? Well, they usually go into the hospital archives — and those archives can be a tempting target for thieves.
Unlike what you might think, they don’t steal the pictures to sell to collectors of the macabre (although I’m sure that does happen). Instead, X-ray thieves typically target older stored X-rays from the mid-2000s back because the X-ray film used to contain silver.
It’s not much, and the process to recover the silver may cost more than it’s worth, but thieves still try. As an example, in 2013, a Detroit man was caught, having stolen more than 15,000 X-rays.
2. Sand
Sand seems like it’d be cheap, but it’s anything but. It is a sought-after and valuable commodity in several markets.
There’s an entire illegal sand mining industry, operated by so-called “sand mafias,” supplying sand for concrete manufacture. If not that, shady vacation resorts can buy illegally mined sand to create tourist-worthy artificial beaches.
Environmental authorities in several countries, like China and India, are constantly combating illegal sand harvesting operations. And then there was the time in 2008 when someone stole an entire beach in Jamaica.
3. Glaciers
Stealing a whole glacier would be an impossible task. Carrying away bits of the ice, though, is a lot easier (although still not easy).
As to why someone would do it, it’s usually for fancy drinks or ice cubes. Bars, restaurants, hotels, and resorts can make a lot of money with overpriced cocktails just because they’re able to say the ice came from such and such glacier.
That said, as I pointed out, glacier theft isn’t easy. You need to be able to haul the ice down from the ice sheet, store in a refrigerated location, and keep the whole operation hush-hush. The 2012 Chilean ice thief failed at that last part.
4. Trees
You’d think people steal trees for lumber, and illegal logging is indeed a problem. I’m not talking about that, though, but stealing whole trees, roots and all.
That’s because trees (alongside with shrubberies, bushes, and other plants) are valuable landscaping items. They can take decades to grow if you plant them, so people who want a specific type of tree may resort to buying a grown one without asking where it came from.
Criminals might steal trees from forests or rip them straight out of people’s yards. It’s increasingly a problem in Canada, where crooks are pilfering prime trees from the country’s vast forests.
5. Manhole Covers
In a way, you can see why somebody might steal manhole covers. They’re right there on the street, and if you throw on a reflective vest and drive a pickup truck, nobody might even pay any attention to your crime.
You can then sell your loot as scrap metal. Or at least you can try.
Cast iron, which most manhole covers are made out of, isn’t exactly a scarce resource, so you likely won’t make that much money. Nonetheless, enterprising criminals, like the duo that plagued Los Angeles in the ‘90s, keep trying.
6. Trading Cards
The people stealing trading cards must be children, right? Wrong. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, trading card theft has become a real issue for retailers.
Rare cards can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Additionally, there’s no way to trace whether any given card was stolen or bought legally, so it’s easy to flip your booty.
And that’s why trading card theft has become such a problem that some retailers keep the cards behind lock and key. Yet, that still doesn’t stop thieves who are ready to smash and grab.
Check out our story if you don’t believe us.
7. Houses
Surely you can’t rip a house off its foundation and take it away? Well, no — but what if the house isn’t on a foundation yet?
Prefabricated house theft has become so common it’s not even funny anymore. Thieves will show up with a truck, hook up a prefab house sitting in storage, and drive away. Do it nonchalantly enough, and any witnesses will see you’re just construction workers.
They will then typically dismantle the house and sell the materials. You can only hope they don’t do that to a house someone was already living in.
8. Bridges
“Okay, now you’re making this up,” you say. I wish I were. Bridges get stolen with astounding frequency all over the world.
And it can be surprisingly easy to do even in broad daylight. The usual modus operandi for thieves is to forge documents that show they’re supposed to be working on the bridge. They can then take it apart, haul the metal away, and sell it for scrap before anyone realizes what went down.
This stuff happens almost all the time. Just take a look at the Oddee archive for the 2012 Czech Bridge Heist or the 2021 bridge theft in Akron, Ohio.
9. Semen
Yes, real semen. As in baby batter. It’s very commonly stolen, and it’s worth gobs of cash.
It’s not human semen, though. Instead, most semen thieves target farms and cattle breeding facilities to steal bull semen.
A single dose of high-quality bull juice can sell for thousands of dollars, and even a so-so sample can earn you several hundred. Grab a 60-gallon container and you have a lot of money (and semen) on your hands.
That said, not every semen thief is intentionally after the stuff. Sometimes, criminals will simply break into a farm, grab something that looks valuable, and be in for one heck of a surprise later.
Bull semen theft is so common that we at Oddee have published several stories about it. And I’m sure there will be more to come.