The number one prized objective of thieves in Luxor these days appears to be the humble manhole cover. Of course with the high price of metals of all kinds now that might not seem so surprising to many.
However, when pondering the sight of the half open manhole cover outside our balcony today a very smart person made an astute observation….”Where the hell are they all going? I mean it takes a smelter of some sort to melt these down…right? So how many smelters are there in Luxor?” Good question yes?
Photo above is of the half-open, half-stolen manhole cover outside my house – one of few magnificent specimens still left in Luxor and one of 5 in my street!! Surely a temptation to the midnight thieves..
Could it possibly be ‘an inside job?’ It gets more puzzling as I think about it. These manhole covers are not lightweigh – it would take at least 3 – 4 men to lift one AND you need to do quite a bit of shoving and shunting with crowbars to open them in the first place! And nobody sees them being transported through the city in the dead of night either!
In the main street next to mine there is not a single castiron manhole cover remaining – they have all been stolen and replaced by sunken plastic covers of some sort.
Well now – there are 5 of these prized targets remaining in my street and I am sure the thieves will be back any one of these nights to lift them…am I going to stay awake and on guard – you must be joking! Those days of panicked vigilance on my part are long exhausted. But it would be nice if an enterprising policeman or two were to stake out the street and give us a bit of excitement some night by catching the thieves red-handed. In the meantime we can, no doubt anticipate 5 open manhole in our street quite soon – and I will be taking bets on how long it will be before the local authorities get around to putting in the plastic ones.
Now, wasn’t that a much more interesting topic than for me to rattle on about the landslide victory just experienced by El Sisi? OH! Just a thought…. If a tour of the locality could be arranged for El Sisi in my neighbourhood anytime soon I am sure we could look forward to a full compliment of manhole covers 🙂