In Ireland, all kinds of metal are being stolen and sold; the big stuff to scrap merchants, presumably, and priceless family jewellery to "We Buy Gold" shops that have sprung up during the recession, and appear to be completely un-policed. (This theft is made more feasible by the fact that banks no longer offer strongboxes here.) Friends of mine who live in the Dublin Mountains drove up their entry road a couple of months back and discovered that someone had taken the big metal plates protecting the road surface where they turn onto the road.
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