Stealing Wire - AGAIN!

[SLWilson]

Going on now....PEDRO in Lawrence County, OH.

Thieves stole all of the copper grounding wire at a Buckeye Rural Electric substation earlier today. The station malfunctioned.

The repair crews found the missing grounds when they arrived to see what was wrong. The substation has had to be entirely removed from service so repairs can be made.

This is the fourth major theft from Buckeye's substations in recent weeks.

Several hundred residents will be without elrctric during the night while repairs are conducted.

The week before Christmas a man was killed trying to steal live 7,200 volt power lines in Point Pleasant, WV (just across the Ohio River from Gallipolis)...

Buckeye Rural Electric (BREC) serves parts of Gallia, Lawrence, Pike, Scioto, Ross and Vinton counties in Ohio.

Steve/Gallia

 

[Jackanapes]

Give the thieves a Darwin Award

 

[mtindor]

And, you know, I was watching some show yesterday called Parole Board and one of the guys on parole was in prison because of his third felony having to do with theft - he had stolen spools of copper wire. At the time I was watching it I was thinking that the guy really just seemed like a guy down on his luck who was trying to make a few bucks - he had me conned. I thought he should have been paroled (didn't watch long enough to find out).

But obviously given (a) the stupidity of some of these people - like the one who got sizzled and (b) what kind of ramifications it can have (your present story), obviously they need to find the idiots and do something with em... I vote for shock treatment given the thief/thieves tendency to go after power company goods

Mike

 

[richster]

I vote for shock treatment given the thief/thieves tendency to go after power company goods

I Agree!

I have heard of people trying to harvest precious metals from sub stations containing live curcuits, but never had that happen here in Saskatchewan.....yet.

The stupidest thing here that happened was that we had a group of thieves back in the mid 80's stealing old pole-transformers for the copper inside. They would cut open the transformer at the bottom exposing themselves to the coolant inside which contained PCB's!!!

Polyclorinated Byphenyls are very dangerous as they are known to cause cancer. The stupidest thing about this was that they just dumped the coolant on the ground, or it went down the sewer. They not only did they put themselves in danger, but the general public as well.

I'm not sure what they got for punishment (usually a slap on the hand), but shock treatment sounds good. :wink:

Regards,
Richster.

 

[JediMaster]

In the past week we have had both cell towers here in Blue Ash have the copper grounding wire stolen from them. And I heard other areas (Sycamore Township) around us had the same thing. Why can't it be a storm and lightning strike the tower at the same time they are stealing it?

 

[wesm1957]

You would think the scrap yards would have enough sense to notify the law when someone brought in that kind of copper wire. I would think that is just not your average copper to bring in for scrap.

Wes

 

[Volfirefighter]

Another idiot who's own stupidity has saved the taxpayers the cost of a trial and imprisonment:

GREEN A man who authorities believe was trying to steal copper from an electric company substation was found dead there Tuesday afternoon.

Edward G. Archer, 48, of E. Turkeyfoot Lake Road may have been electrocuted three days ago at the substation on Myersville Road, said Sgt. Scott Cottle of the Summit County Sheriff's Department. Cottle said a man told deputies that he gave Archer a ride to the substation near Rubber City Sand and Gravel three days earlier.

Deputies then discovered Archer's body there.

The Summit County medical examiner's office said the fully clothed body was found at 2:30 p.m. inside the fenced-in substation behind a transformer on a slab of concrete. He was found with a bolt cutter next to him and copper wire that appeared to have been cut from the substation, a medical examiner's investigator said.

He said that an autopsy is scheduled for today and that it's too early to determine the cause of death. However, the body did not have any burns, nor is it clear yet when exactly Archer died.

FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin said that although his company provided power to that substation, the facility and all of its equipment was owned by Rubber City Sand and Gravel. He said copper is a good conducting material often used in substations. He noted the price of copper has risen in recent years.

But, "it's not worth losing your life over. ... there's barbed wire there for a reason. It's very dangerous. ... you just want to stay away."

William H. Leach, Jr. of Lake Township, who owns Rubber City's 76-acre property at 3046 Myersville Rd., said the substation and business have been dormant since his father, the previous owner, died in 1999. He said he believed that power had been cut off to the substation.

Leach said the sheriff's office hasn't yet given him much information about what happened, except the dead person had climbed the fence into the substation.

Archer most recently was released from the Summit County Jail in August to await a hearing for criminal damaging and endangering charges, jail records said.

Summit Court records show he was sentenced to six months in prison in 2003 for breaking and entering, and then later, to a year in prison for illegal assembly or possession of chemicals to manufacture drugs. He was sentenced in 2000 to six months in prison for cocaine trafficking, the records also show.

Anyone with information about the death was asked to call detectives at (330) 643-2131.

 

[Mylan]

Since this is such a huge problem throughout the entire state of Ohio, the legislature needs to pass a law making it a felony for scapyards to accept copper without having the sellers name and the origin of the copper documented for local authorities to investigate... it's just like a pawn shop.... I mean seriously, where do people have a legitamite source for obtaining large weights of copper wire.
Even if a law like this goes on the books, it might only make it harder for the theives to sell their goods ( like limiting the places that will buy it OR making theives come up with good lies about where they got the stuff).... I don't know much about the scrap buisiness so I can't say much more but I would love to hear from someone who does... this is becoming a "hot" topic around here.

On another note:
I remember on the news last year something about this guy who used a boat to steal wire from an abandoned power plant along the Ohio River in Jefferson County... i forget how he got caught...

 

[N_Jay]

Thieves are usually stupid.

There was a guy in LA, CA area who decided to roll a spool of sheet steel off the back of a flatbed truck (you know, those big spools where the entire semi truck only carries ONE), onto the back of his pickup truck.

I would guess his truck was not up to the 20 to 40 ton load!:twisted: :lol: :twisted:

 

[SouthSoundScanner]

Would love to see a photo of that pick up truck

 

[Volfirefighter]

Stupidity Claims Another

MASSILLON Police are investigating the death of a man, they believe was trying to steal copper from a substation today.

Sgt. J.J. DiLoreto said the body of Harold L. Taylor, 25, of 400 Monroe St. NW, was found inside enclosed area off Oberlin Road SW, in the former site of Republic Steel, around 12:30 p.m.

DiLoreto said it appeared Taylor was “dismantling” copper from the substation owned by the property owners and may have been electrocuted by 23,000 volts of electricity.

Ohio Edison spokesman Ray Martinez said the substation was clearly marked and fenced-in. The power company runs a line to the station, but it does not own the station.

 

[publicsafetyvehicles]

If a civilian catches the copper thief in the act and proceeds to beat him up, would their attorney later claim in court that his client was merely a victim of "Copper-Top Battery?"

 

[KevinTheMule]

You would think the scrap yards would have enough sense to notify the law when someone brought in that kind of copper wire. I would think that is just not your average copper to bring in for scrap.

Wes

Scraps yards are like pawn shops...without the class...and ethics. They buy untraceable stuff from anyone, and re-sell it at enormous profits.

I used to work at a large paper mill...some of one of our trucking subcontractor's employees got the bright idea of taking truckloads of machinery scrap that was being retrofitted/replaced and stored in the drop lot to a local scrap yard. The owner of the scrapyard paid them IN CASH for each load...even though the loads were in clearly marked semi-trailers belonging to the ONLY big factory in town. I can't remember all the numbers, but basically the scrap yard slug paid the guys $100 a load for something that was worth $2000 a load if it were above-board. (I just remember 20X was the ratio). Turns out scrap yard operator had a cousin with a smelting/foundry outfit and was just melting the crap as soon as he could get it and moving it along.

Who busted them? The owner of the trucking outfit...who had the most to lose (since it turns out his employees were f-ing thieves)...but HE had class.