Do you really think there's any copper left at this point?
I don't see anything (fixtures, ripped boxes etc.) in the piles out front or in the dumpster that would indicate metal thieves have been there. They're not exactly subtle.
I mean, aside from Chris neighbors knowing that the house is sitting empty, many people online all over the country do, too. Fuck, there's a thread where someone set up a time lapse camera for a day and all sorts of people walked by.
The attention 14BLC gets makes it less likely it would be targeted by professional thieves. Also anyone who knows about the home from the internet would also know they'd have to dig through layers upon layers of barbage before reaching the walls. Thieves want to get in and get out as quickly as and easily as possible. While it's wide open to the weather, 14BLC is actually pretty well sealed from thieves. Doubtless there are richer and easier pickings to be had elsewhere in the C-ville area.
Personally, I do not think it's the Chandlers that have been digging through the front yard dumpster.
Who else would it be? I can't imagine there are enough weens out there to haul away the sheer volume of barbage that's been in that dumpster. It wouldn't have been metal thieves, either, because profitable recyclables never would have gone into it in the first place.
I now have an image of Chris tearing and clawing at the walls of 14BC in an attempt to get his lego fix stuck in my head.
Yeah, I was a little concerned Chris might actually read that and get ideas as I wrote it. But then I thought it might motivate him to get cracking on the clean-out. And it would be funny as hell to watch.
How much longer until this triggers a blight ordinance?
In a semi-rural place like Greene County it could take years, if ever. It will probably be seized for back taxes first.
Where I live houses go on the market one day and are gone the next. If you want anything salvaged, you have to either do it yourself or get a group like Habitat for Humanity to come in and deconstruct the house piece by piece. And hardly anyone ever does that.
A professional salvage crew can take less than a day to gut a home completely if they know it's going to be razed. It's the homes that are going to be rebuilt that they have to take their time over. Also a property that is being sold for land value likely already has been stripped even before the sale is made as the seller tries to squeeze every last red penny out of it.
And again, a lot depends on the local waste disposal laws. Some places require various materials like gypsum drywall, asphalt roofing, and wood to be hauled off separately for landfill, recycling, and composting etc. More often than not that's the case these days.