Back in the late 60's some guys from the Chicago area stole all the brass out of a string of cars setting on the Penn Central yard in Logansport, IN. The cars were pulled before anyone knew and all the trucks and wheelsets were damaged. The men were caught after selling some cast brass igots to a Chicago area salvage yard. The men had melted them down at home in a ceramics kiln and poured them into home made sand molds.
So this is not a new type of crime. I have read on other forums how railfans remove signs, spikes, switch stands, doors, ticket counters, anything they can get their hands on and think it's OK because the "railroad wasn't using it" or "I only took 1", or "nobody will miss it", or my favorite" I would ask, but they always say no everytime someone asks, so i just took it because it's unreasonable for them to say no I can't have it". So this also isn't something that happens "over there". Stealing is stealing wheather it be a piece of ballast stone or a locomotive. I would like to say I'm shocked, but I'm not. People steal out of my store all the time. They steal mostly $10 software and $8 mice. I have also lost hard drives, memory, cpus, expensive stuff I no longer can afford to put on the shelf but have to keep in a controlled access area. I heard the local Walmart manager say one day he looses 2 to 3% of his inventory to "shrinkage" which is a pretty way to say theft.
Please don't steal, even a piece of ballast. FRED