More Heist-able: Your H.D.T.V. or Your A.C.?Burglaries are on the decline across the United States, with at least one notable exception: increasingly, thieves are breaking into foreclosed homes — stripping out the copper pipes, wiring, and appliances — and selling their pilfered goods as scrap. From there, Treehugger reports, the scrap metal is most often shipped to China.

Coincidentally, that’s the country Tyler Cowen credits for the downswing in U.S. burglary. Low wages in China have helped flood the market with cheap electronics, lowering their value enough that they’re not worth stealing any more.

Your car’s catalytic converter, on the other hand…

StatsCan says burglaries in this country have been dropping for more than ten years. Same thing in Britain.

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