Three Very Specific Types of Thieves- Bluey-Hunters

Here is another examination of a specialized thief from Henry Mayhew’s “London Labour and the London Poor”, and a few thoughts on their use in game.  

“Bluey-Hunters, or those who purloin lead from the tops of houses”
The cramped proximity of large buildings in the Victorian city provided criminal classes with new targets: lead flashing and lead pipes. Flashing is the thin weatherproof material covering the places in a roof where elements join together, such as a chimney apron. Lead’s durability and sealing abilities adapted well to the job. Brightly shining lead flashing stands out among the dull slate tiles of Victorian roofs.
Scrap lead melted down into new shapes was untraceable and very lucrative. Dishonest or unemployed plumbers sometimes returned to the site of a job claiming some small final errand. If the owners of the house let them in and left them alone, the thieves stole every bit of lead pipe and flashing or copper boilers they could get their hands on. Similarly it was not uncommon to see a newly patched roof surrounded by roofs picked clean of their lead by opportunistic workmen. Respectable looking bluey-hunters inquired about abandoned houses. If the owner gave the thief a key so he could examine its premises, the thief had easy access to all the scrap inside and out. Simplest of all, some thieves quietly climbed up walls and spouts to reach the roof and gathered the flashing by night, while an accomplice in the street (called a crow) kept watch.

Isaac Collins (Agile dwarven workman) 
Initiative: 5
Physical: 6
Mental: 3
Social: 5
Health: 8
Traits: Dishonest Handyman +2, Climber +2,
Combat: Punch (3), Crowbar (6)
Bits of tar stuck to his clothes, and his suntanned face show evidence of Isaac’s profession, while chips of a bluish silvery lead under his fingernails evidence his crimes.

Lead Poisoning
Exposure to lead, through skin contact, inhaling or ingestion, leads to lead poisoning (or plumbism or saturnism as it was called in the 1800s). Large amounts of lead absorbed by the human body impedes natural functions leading to a variety of symptoms, such as loss of memory, yellow skin coloration, pricking sensations in the skin, anemia, headaches, insomnia, tremors, vomiting, and kidney failure.
Despite growing knowledge of the poisonings, lead was very hard to avoid in Victorian England. Lead paint covered the walls, lead was added to wine as a sweetener, and drinking water flowed through lead pipes.
A medically perceptive investigator might recognize a bluey-hunter by his symptoms.

Lead in Alchemy
In classical alchemy, lead is “ruled” by the planet Saturn (hence the name saturnism for lead poisoning), and often symbolizes death, decay, purification and transformation. Any of these associations makes the theft of lead much more sinister.

Adventure Ideas
A group of subversive revolutionaries steal lead so they can make bullets for their cause. Stolen gatling guns need a lot of bullets.

Buildings used by the Guild often have excessive amounts of lead flashing on their roofs. Is something sealed in or out? What happens to a bluey-hunter reckless enough to steal some?