TL;DR
In Pittsburgh, scrap metal is a serious business — even a bathtub can vanish overnight, and living there means dealing with scavengers.
The author moved from the West Coast to Pittsburgh, expecting snowball fights and icicles, but found the house unheated, and spent January installing gas pipes with numb fingers, unable even to squeeze sealant from the tube.
1. The vanishing bathtub
On moving day, they set an old cast-iron tub in the backyard. The next morning it was gone — within 24 hours. The author thought it was a random theft, until learning Pittsburgh has dedicated 'scrappers' who hunt for raw metal.
2. The scrapping duo
Months later, they pulled out another rusted bathtub, left it out, and a pickup truck appeared. Ron and Wade jumped out, grabbed the tub, then asked to pull ductwork from their dumpster. They're a shouting duo, both hard of hearing, like from an old movie.
3. The furnace fiasco
Asked to haul an old furnace from the basement, Wade suddenly had a claustrophobic panic attack halfway up the stairs, nearly crushing the author. Ron returned with an axe, hacked the pipe free, and finally they got it out. Asked what steel pays: 'Four cents a pound.'
That's basically life in Pittsburgh: scrap and scares, all in a day.
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