SIOUX FALLS — The theft of 500 to 600 pounds of copper pipe valued at $6,000 was reported at a Sioux Falls construction site.
Courtesy photo WKRN-TV NEWS 2 NASHVILLESeptember 11, 2009 | WKRN.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A woman was killed while trying to steal copper wire early Friday morning, according to police. The incident happened around 12 Midnight inside the former Carl Black Chevrolet building on Murfreesboro Road in south Nashville.
Police said the woman, 36-year-old Viola Farnsworth, and three males were taking the copper wire when Farnsworth touched a live wire and was electrocuted.
Courtesy photo WKRN-TV NEWS 2 NASHVILLEAfterwards, the men, identified as Curtis Crawford, 28, Francis Cunningham, 20, and Joseph Salisbury, 28, immediately fled the building. They were pulled over a short time later after an officer noticed a car driving without its headlights. Burglary tools and copper wire were located inside the car and police said all three men admitted to the break-in.
Farnsworth’s body was discovered a short time later.
DECATUR, Tenn. — Three people have been charged in the copper theft from a power station that cut power to 90 percent of the county, authorities said this afternoon. Chad Parker, of Meigs County, and Tommy Fugate, of Athens, are charged with reckless endangerment, criminal trespassing and vandalism of property valued between $10,000 and $60,000, Meigs County Detective Keith Kyle said. VEC spokesman Robert McCarty said the thieves may have damaged a transformer at the substation that would cost $200,000 to replace.
Ryan Massad was arrested after attempting to steal copper from a local business. (Courtesy Smith County Jail)
February 21, 2015 | cbs19.tv (KYTX)
TYLER (KYTX) – Tyler Police arrested a man after he reportedly attempted to steal copper from a local business. Dispatch responded to an alarm call Saturday morning around 3:37 a.m. from OnCor located on the 1300 block of SSE Loop 323.
They discovered a man, later identified as Ryan Palmer Massad, was on the property and possibly stealing copper. Officers responded by setting up a perimeter around the business to prevent the man from escaping. Massad was caught and arrested following a foot chase.
October 24, 2012
One man is dead after Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputies say he was trying to steal copper from a power substation. Around 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, deputies were sent to South Montgomery County. Employees with Center Point received a service call to the electrical substation and when they arrived they found a dead white male. Investigators believe Harold Gene Schneider, 37, was electrocuted in the process of stealing copper wiring.
May 27, 2012
Fort Worth, Texas — Cindy and Mark Boling are trying to understand why their dog, Lillie, a Border collie mix they’ve had for five years is now dead — shot and killed in their own yard by a Fort Worth police officer.
“He literally has ripped our hearts out,” Cindy Boling said.
Saturday afternoon, the couple had just returned home from shopping and was unloading their truck. The back gate was open and Lillie and the couple’s other dog, Gracie, were in the driveway with them. The couple says a Fort Worth police officer showed up and was walking toward the house. The dogs went to meet him.
“I started yelling ‘my dogs don’t bite please don’t hurt them. They’re going to come down and just greet you and I’ll grab them up and put them in the backyard,'” Boling said.
Mark caught up to Gracie but Lillie ran up on the porch where the officer was standing. They say within seconds the officer pulled out his pistol and shot Lillie in the back.
“My dog was standing there looking like I got a new friend and he turned and shot her in the back,” Mark Boling said.
The dog ran to the backyard where she died within minutes.
The officer was at the house by mistake. He was sent to 4917 Norma Street on a copper theft call. But instead, he showed up two blocks away at the Boling’s address, which is 4717.
A suspected copper thief believed to have stolen copper from a Centerpoint (TX) station in Oct. 2011. (Courtesy photo KUHF Houston)
November 18, 2011
Surveillance photos were released of a man suspected of stealing copper wire from a CenterPoint Energy power plant on Tomball Parkway last month. When police arrived, they discovered the fence had been cut and copper wire and parts had been stolen.
July 8, 2010
HOUSTON—A deputy fell off the roof of a shopping center Wednesday night while looking for a copper theft suspect. Harris County deputies were called to the scene at Uvalde and Holly Park around 9:30 p.m. by security guards who said a man and a woman were stealing copper from an empty H-E-B store.
April 11, 2008
DALLAS, TX — Stealing copper from air conditioning units, construction sites, even highway lights is a big problem, according to Dallas police Lt. Richard Dwyer, who heads the Department’s metal theft unit.
April 9, 2008
Longview — Michael Wayne Nickerson, 52, of Longview was arrested and charged with Theft of Wire/Cable containing 50% Aluminum, Bronze, or Copper under $20,000 which is a State Jail Felony.
Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:21am EST
DALLAS–(Business Wire)–Copper theft is a community problem that is continuing to grow. Thieves have stolen air conditioners out of churches, equipment of out schools and wiring out of streetlights. Oncor, with its miles of distribution and transmission lines, is also a target for these thieves.
December 22, 2006
A Longview man was electrocuted during an apparent copper theft, in what investigators say is rapidly growing crime. It happened Thursday afternoon on Meadows lane, just off I-20 in Gregg county. Investigators say two men were trying to cut the copper from a power pole, when one of them contacted a live wire, and was electrocuted.
Police are looking for thieves who stole a bronze statue from Saratoga Springs. The statue was valued at $4,000 and depicted a young mother who was killed by a massive natural gas explosion in 2007. Courtesy photo
November 2, 2011
SARATOGA SPRINGS — After a massive natural gas explosion killed a young wife and mother in 2007, the community rallied together. Through an Eagle Scout project funds were raised, and eventually local artist John Zebley created a bronze statue depicting the woman. But now, that statue has vanished. Police say the 18-inch statue disappeared from a stone pedestal in a Saratoga Springs subdivision sometime between Oct. 12 and 15. It was reported missing on Oct. 19, and metal thieves are likely to blame, according to Detective Bruce Champagne of the Saratoga Springs Police Department.
October 7, 2008
In the past couple of years, copper has become a favorite target for crooks, but a Utah senator is trying to get a law passed that would make scrap yards more responsible. The latest copper theft happened at a baseball field in Kearns. Whoever stole this copper really wanted it. The person had to cut into several light poles, yank the copper wire down, slice it and haul it off.
Related: HATCH, KLOBUCHAR UNVEIL COPPER THEFT PREVENTION ACT OF 2008
Thursday April 24, 2008
If you bring a piece of copper into a scrap metal dealer today, you’ll likely receive around $3.00 per pound. That’s up substantially from the 75cents per pound you might have received four years ago. Prices for other types of scrap metal, from aluminum to steel, are also up. But with the boom in business, comes a rising amount of theft. As a result, the Vermont Senate has passed a bill that would require scrap dealers to check identification and keep detailed sale records.
November 13, 2012
Police believe a man that was killed Saturday in a single-vehicle accident had just stolen copper from a vacant Richmond factory and fled the scene after a witness called police. James M. Ward, 40, of McKee, died at 11:17 a.m. after his car ran left the southbound lane of Interstate 75 near mile marker 84 and traveled about 200 feet down an embankment before crashing into a rocky ravine, according to the Kentucky State Police and the Madison County coroner.
Man pleads guilty to charges surrounding copper theft
July 6, 2011
FRONT ROYAL — A town man pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Warren County Circuit Court after being indicted by a grand jury on three charges related to the theft of copper from the town’s electric department.
July 29, 2010
Charges are pending after Buchanan County authorities say they caught a man attempting to steal copper Tuesday night. They actually received a 911 call that a man was hanging from an AEP power pole in Harman, Virginia. Once they arrived, they found 52-year-old Ervin Hardin on a transformer. He had been electrocuted and is now at a burn unit in a hospital in Huntington, West Virginia.
July 1, 2011
Copper and metal thieves have found a new target: vacant commercial buildings. The graffiti-painted buildings with the “For Lease” signs are an invitation to the bad guys, and Everett police worry it’s just the beginning.
December 16, 2010
Copper thieves ransacked the powerhouse atop the Murray Morgan Bridge around Thanksgiving, causing between $250,000 and $300,000 in damage and dealing a heavy blow to the City of Tacoma’s effort to repair and reopen the historic structure.
September 30, 2014 | Bluefield Daily Telegraph
The public safety of hundreds across our region was once again threatened last week by the stupidity of a would-be copper thief. This time someone trying to steal copper actually cut down and burned a fiber optic cable line. This foolish and criminal act left hundreds across McDowell County without landline telephone service for a period of several hours — including the McDowell County 911 Communications Center.
Hundreds of families in several communities were impacted by this criminal act. According to Sgt. C.F. Kane, commander of the West Virginia State Police Welch Detachment, the fiber optic line that was cut and burned was actually located in Mercer County. But the disruption in telephone service impacted McDowell County. Investigators say those responsible for this outrageous act were looking for copper inside of the fiber optic line.
May 9, 2013 | The (Columbus, Indiana) Republic
THURMOND, West Virginia — Police in Fayette County said Thursday that a man was electrocuted when he picked up a live power line that he had shot down in order to steal copper from it. Fayette County Sheriff Steve Kessler said the man’s body was found Wednesday in Thurmond near Babcock State Park. He was identified Thursday as 22-year-old Dalton Newhouse of Oak Hill.
Kessler said Newhouse and an accomplice (Charles Raymond Norris, 22, of Oak Hill) planned to strip the line of its copper wiring to later sell as scrap metal. Newhouse was killed instantly when he picked up the power line, Kessler said. Norris was later arrested and charged with Attempt to Commit a Felony, Conspiracy to Commit a Felony and Disruption of a Public Utility. (WTRF)
December 2, 2012 | WSAZ NewsChannel 3
LOGAN COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) — West Virginia State Police are discovering more about the death of James David Marcum Jr. – a 28-year-old man who was electrocuted while attempting to steal copper wire.
Marcum’s body was found Saturday on a hillside near Omar off of Route 44 after he had been missing for three-and-a-half days. He was initially believed to have gone hunting.
Troopers say they believe Marcum wasn’t alone when he was electrocuted, and they’re in the process of questioning individuals who could have been with him. They also say the power lines on that hillside were targeted by others in the past.
April 24, 2012
BOONE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) — A man from Boone County is dead after investigators believe he was trying to steal wire off of a utility pole near a coal mine. According to a news release, the body of Herbert Ray Price, Jr., 37, of Gordon, was found lying on a hillside near a utility pole.
Courtesy photo Tributes.comJune 1, 2011 | WSAZ NewsChannel 3
LOGAN COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) — The widow of a man who police say died while trying to steal copper is facing charges.
Felicia Lupson was arrested back on May 26 in Logan County.
West Virginia State Troopers say she was with her husband Steven, when he was trying to steal copper from a power pole on May 16.
Felicia has been charged with grand larceny and destruction of property and conspiracy.
Joshua Drake has also been charged in the case.
State police say Drake and Felicia were serving as look outs while Steven stole the copper.
May 17, 2011 | The Associated Press
BLAIR, W.Va. (AP) — State Police say a Charleston man apparently was trying to steal copper from a power pole in Logan County when he was electrocuted.
State Police tell WSAZ-TV that an officer investigating the theft found the body of 26-year-old Steven E. Lupson II next to a utility pole along state Route 17 in Blair.
July 14, 2010 | News and Sentinel
MARIETTA – American Electric Power is using recent deaths and the sentencing of two men in Washington County to help deter would-be copper thieves. The local case involved two Chapmanville, W.Va., men who admitted to stealing more than 14,000 feet of power line cables in the Lowell area, and disrupting electric service for several hours.
The cable cost AEP $28,162 to replace, including labor. The scrap value of the metal was about $3,000.
Four people have been killed while attempting to steal copper wire in the Columbus, Ohio-based electric utility’s service area. State police say two people were killed in southern West Virginia. The other deaths occurred near Chillicothe, Ohio, and in Harrisonburg, Va., AEP spokesman Phil Moye said.
The most recent incident occurred last week in Boone County, W.Va., state police say the body of Harold Holstein, 42, was discovered by a power company worker who had responded to an outage in the area. Another man was injured.
A Ross County man was killed June 26 while he was attempting to steal copper grounding wire from a substation near Clarksburg, Ohio, according to AEP. On June 6, a Bruno, W.Va., man was killed while attempting to take grounding wire from a pole in Logan County, W.Va.
July 9, 2010
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — American Electric Power is blaming increasingly brazen thefts by copper thieves targeting power lines for a series of fatal accidents in West Virginia, Ohio and Virginia.
Morris Michael Dale Goodman, 27, passed away June 6, 2010 after attempting to steal copper wires. He left behind many family members.
Morris Goodman Obituary
June 6, 2010 | Logan Banner | Christian, W. Virginia
CHRISTIAN, W.Va. — Morris Michael Dale Goodman, 37, of Christian, passed away Sunday, June 6, 2010
Daniel and Jack Chapman (courtesy WSAZ)
March 28, 2008
PRENTER, W.Va. (WSAZ) — The Boone County Sheriff says a father and son died late Friday night after they were electrocuted inside an AEP substation. It happened at about 11:15pm in Prenter — about five miles up from Route 3.
Sheriff Miller said 22-year-old Daniel Chapman of Seth and another man went to the Hopkins Fork power substation with the intent to steal copper. Miller says the two cut a hole in the chain link fence around the substation and then tried to cut and remove a series of grounding wire that protected the facility.
According to Miller, both men came into contact with power from the substation — Chapman was electrocuted and the man who was with him was burned, but was able to escape and go get help.
Once he was notified of the incident, Daniel Chapman’s father, Jack Chapman, 48, went to the facility and tried to free his son. Witnesses tell police that when Jack was unable to free Daniel, his frustration led him to also come in contact with live power cables. Both died at the scene.
WEAU-TV 13 – Eau Claire, WI
Deputies say employees at a scrap metal shop helped catch two men who are now charged with stealing copper wire from the railroad.
KULR8 – Dec. 20, 2010
Casper, Wyo. (AP) — Natrona County authorities say two men are accused of trying to steal several thousand dollars worth of copper wire from a Mills company.
NetworkWorld.com Community
Copper theft is an epidemic crime across the nation and the world. Police in some states have reported that thieves are now targeting the growing amounts of empty, foreclosed houses to steal copper wiring. Of course, not all criminals are the brightest bulbs; some have been killed or maimed pulling out live wires. I reported last year that there was a growing movement by telecommunications vendors to offer rewards leading to the arrest of copper thieves.
Copper thieves are threatening US critical infrastructure by targeting electrical sub-stations, cellular towers, telephone land lines, railroads, water wells, construction sites, and vacant homes for lucrative profits. The theft of copper from these targets disrupts the flow of electricity, telecommunications, transportation, water supply, heating, and security and emergency services and presents a risk to both public safety and national security.
A dead copper wire theft suspect is carried away from the crime scene. Courtesy photo Jabulisa Dlamini, Times of Swaziland
Sept. 21, 2012 | Times of Swaziland
MANZINI – A man was electrocuted while attempting to steal a copper wire from an electricity pole at Woodmasters early yesterday morning.
Residents of Woodmasters are said to have encountered a blackout at around 3am yesterday and when they called the Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC) faults line, the company’semployees who were on call rushed to check what might have caused. When the employees arrived at scene they discovered a body of man believed to be in his mid thirties lying near the powerline pole.
March 6, 2008 | The Scone Advocate
After working on an empty house he is preparing to sell, 80 year-old Earl Thelander goes home to relax and get a good night’s sleep.
Aug. 29, 2014 | CBC News, cbc.ca
This week Toronto police arrested a man they allege broke into seven Hydro One power stations, risking his life to steal cables and cash in on the sky-high value of copper.
But the man’s arrest likely won’t make a dent in a surging copper theft problem that costs Hydro One about $2 million a year and is prompting the utility to phase out pure copper in favour of cheaper metals that are less attractive to thieves.
Lori Anne Gardner, a security specialist with Hydro One, said stolen copper cables cause power outages and lead to costly damage. But more troubling is that copper thieves risk electrocution, not only for themselves but for employees working at hydro stations around the province.
“Its surprises me every time that people would break in and steal from our live structures,” she told CBC News. In many cases the cabling is pulled from high-voltage lines. “A few inches higher and lower can be their lives,” she said.
Steven Shepel, electrocuted (courtesy globalnews.ca)
Oct. 10, 2013 | Globalnews.ca
KELOWNA — A coroner’s investigation has determined the death of a copper thief was accidental and there are no suggestions to prevent further such incidents.
In April 2012, a badly injured Steven Ray Brodie Shepel, 35, was found in a remote, wooded area of Kelowna. Shepel had been removing copper ground wires from hydro poles when one of the wires came in close contact to the 138,000 volt power line.
May 29, 2013 | Privateofficernews.com
Montreal Canada — A man who killed a security guard while stealing copper near Thetford Mines was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday. Eddy Rivest received the sentence after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter after killing Roland Hardy at a mine near Saint-Joseph-de-Coleraine.
Hardy’s colleagues found him dead on July 23, 2010 at the abandoned Normandy asbestos mine on Vimy Rd. in the Chaudière-Appalaches region of Quebec. Rivest, after time served, will see his sentence end in 13 years and eight months. He will no longer have the right to own a firearm for the rest of his life.
Courtesy photo Radio-CanadaFebruary 8, 2012 | CBCNews, Montreal
A 44-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the 2010 slaying of a mine guard. The victim, Roland Hardy, 51, was on duty at the Normandie mine in Saint-Joseph-de-Coleraine on the evening of July 23.
June 15, 2011 | Toronto Sun
A group of Hamilton-area men face a slew of charges for allegedly stealing about $1 million in copper from dozens of hydro facilities in Southern Ontario.
April 9, 2014 | Deccan Herald
New Delhi — They had laced his soft drink with sedatives and fed him pills to make him unconscious before strangling him.
The accused were arrested on Tuesday.
The victim Naresh, a resident of south-west Delhi’s Sagarpur, was the owner and driver of a mini-truck and used the vehicle to transport scrap. On Monday, he was asked by Jatin Gupta, owner of a scrap godown in Mayapuri, to deliver copper scrap to Harsh Vihar in north-east Delhi.
May 12, 2015 | adnkronis.com
A 55-year-old Romanian died after he was electrocuted Tuesday trying to steal copper wires from a telephone exchange on the outskirts of Italy’s northern city of Turin. Costantin Cretu’s 23-year-old son called emergency services but he was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.
Bloomberg.com : Japan
Copper rises to Highest in Almost Four Months on Chinese Demand
April 2 (Bloomberg) — Copper prices in New York rose to the highest in almost four months on speculation demand will climb in China, the world’s biggest user of the metal.
March 7, 2013 | Naharnet.com
The Syrian head of a gang that steals copper wires from electricity cables in southern Lebanon was arrested and admitted to killing an old man in the town of Qana, the state-run National News Agency reported Thursday. NNA said that the Syrian suspect Bassel al-Ahmed admitted to killing Moussa Badreddine in his shop along with several other suspects while robbing him. Badreddine, 81, was found dead in his shop in August last year.
A copper thief burns to death in Sabha, Libya, July 10, 2016.
July 10, 2016 | dailynigerianews.com
A man was burnt to death in Sabha, Libya, July 10, 2016, while trying to steal high voltage power lines.
One day after I blogged about copper theft, some jokers decided that they needed some steel bolts and stole some from a 132kV power transmission tower (or “Pylons” as we Malaysians call them). This brought one of the towers down resulting in a loss of electrical power to 90% of the areas in Sabah. Imagine nearly a whole State brought to a standstill by a single act of theft!
A thief with a charm in his mouth was electrocuted Oct. 9, 2018, while attempting to steal copper from a PHCN installation in the Karu area in Abuja, Nigeria. (Courtesy withinnigeria.com)
October 10, 2018 | WithinNigeria.com
A thief with a charm in his mouth, was electrocuted while attempting to steal copper from a PHCN installation in the Karu area in Abuja last night, October 9th.
His body has been brought down from the electric pole and has been deposited in the morgue.
Team is on track to halt copper theft
October 31, 2008
A SPECIAL police squad has been formed to target thieves responsible for a spate of copper cable thefts from Scotland’s railway lines. British Transport Police (BTP) drafted in their most experienced officers to investigate a huge rise in crimes involving valuable metals.
Sept. 14, 2020 | Cape Town, South Africa
Cape Town – An alleged cable thief who tampered with railway power lines was electrocuted and burnt beyond recognition.
Metrorail spokesperson Riana Scott confirmed the incident, which occurred at the Langa railway station at the weekend, and referred queries to the police.
Police spokesperson Andrè Traut said a death inquest case had been registered and the circumstances surrounding the matter were being investigated. Full Story
Courtesy photo Sowetan LiveSept. 8, 2012 | Sowetan Live, South Africa
City Power officials discovered the man’s body and the tools he supposedly used to break into the substation. The man had already removed two batteries and a copper cable before the fire broke out, causing damage of about R10-million, City Power said. A second substation about 800m away was also affected, interrupting power supply in the Roodepoort area from about 7am yesterday morning.
September 8, 2011
Twice in one week last month the train ground to a halt because cable thieves managed to make off with copper cables supplying the train.
While a private security company which took over Telkom’s copper cable theft probes last month from specialised investigators in Cape Town said it was handling the job “very well”, the city said it was “impossible” to work with the “incompetent” security guards.
Johannesburg, 17 August 2007 – The rate of cable theft is on the rise again, driven by a lucrative reprocessing market both locally and internationally, says Telkom.
Gauteng, South Africa
Some of the services Royal Securities will provide include proactively alarming critical cable routes, using armed guards, deploying wireless alternatives to copper, burying cables where possible, working with Business Against Crime, and engaging government in order to facilitate more solutions to the copper theft problem.
March 16, 2012 | Yorkshire Post
A TEENAGE boy who was trying to steal copper cable pretended he was being electrocuted just moments before it happened for real, killing him instantly, as his horrified friends watched. Ryan Woolams, 16, “paid the ultimate price” when he was hit by an electric shock while trying to steal cable from an electricity sub-station at Skelton Grange in Stourton, Leeds, an inquest heard.
March 15, 2012 | The Evening Telegraph
Tuesday, 9.35am: Metal thieves are responsible for a gas explosion which destroyed a bungalow near Wisbech in the early hours of on Monday morning (12 March). The explosion in the empty bungalow on St Leonard’s Road, Leverington, near Wisbech, ripped the front and roof off the property when a gas leak ignited at around 1.05am. The bungalow was being renovated, and thieves broke in over the weekend to steal the piping, which caused the leak.
Brassed off: Band treasurer Neil Palmer with the remains of his stolen trumpet
Gary Lawton
January 18, 2012
A metal thief was killed by a 33,000-volt shock as he tried to steal copper from an electricity substation, an inquest heard. Father-of-three Gary Lawton, 46, was left for dead by at least one accomplice after being injured.
November 23, 2011
For more than a century, the Pontardulais Town Band has played its rousing and sometimes mournful brass music to accompany key moments in its Welsh community’s history. When tearful families waved off the young men boarding trains to go to fight in World War I, the band was in place on the station platform to ensure the event did not pass without suitably solemn music.
November 22, 2011
Guerilla Communications has created a hard-hitting poster campaign warning of the severe dangers facing those who steal cables from Metro lines in the North East.
November 17, 2011
A woman ‘had a lucky escape’ when she plunged 20ft into a sewer after thieves stole a drain cover. The woman, who has not been named, suffered only cuts and bruises after dropping into the darkness in Broadbridge Heath, near Horsham, West Sussex.
November 15, 2011
A coroner hit out at the scourge of metal theft after a man was killed when an aluminium ladder placed against a pylon touched a live electricity cable. Darren Wayne Law, 42, was hit by a 6,600-volt electrical surge and died later in hospital.
October 29, 2011
Thieves completely strip the roof off All Saints, Woodchurch, a 14th-century church in a picture-postcard village in rural East Kent. The day before, horses at a riding school in Lancashire bolted after a scrap metal gang stole the stable doors. The day before that, thieves stole 64 sq ft of lead from the flat roof at Bishop’s Palace in Lincoln, one of the most significant medieval ecclesiastical ruins in England. Last Monday they stole a 4ft-high statue of a Second World War soldier worth £10,000 from a war memorial in Tidworth, Wilts.
Courtesy photo Daily MailOctober 8, 2011
Copper cable thieves who cut down a pylon leaving live wires exposed may have used a foal as a ‘tester’ to check if electricity was still moving through the line. The burnt remains of the six-month old animal were discovered in its field near Sittingbourne, Kent the next day by its owner who is in his eighties. After the incident, around 3,000 homes were plunged into darkness as the criminals took stole the copper cabling cutting the electricity supply.
September 12, 2011
A FOOLHARDY thief could have been killed after stealing copper wire from an 11,000 volt electricity pole in Sedlescombe. Sometime on August 18, some copper earthing wire was taken from the pole in Beech Farm Road.
Courtesy photo Daily Mail Reporter
Courtesy photo Daily Mail ReporterAugust 15, 2011
Two brothers who left their friend to die when he was electrocuted as they stole copper cable, have been jailed for four years. John and Jason Tusting sold the metal for £340 within hours of father-of-two James Smith, 28, suffering a fatal shock inside an electricity substation. His body lay undiscovered in a railway substation near Sydenham Railway Station, in southeast London, for more than two hours after his death on December 4 last year.
July 5, 2011 – BBC
A boy has been electrocuted during a suspected attempt to steal copper cable at a disused Leeds power station.
June 20, 2011 | PRWEB.COM Newswire
Eccles, Greater Manchester — The Police Review has announced that metal theft is the fastest growing crime in the UK, with annual industry damage estimated at £360 million and steadily increasing; roofs, mild steel tubing, man-hole covers and statues have all been targeted as a result.
Courtesy Yorkshire PostJune 9, 2011 | Wales Times
Wales is experiencing a surge in copper cable theft, with thieves targeting railway lines, electricity cables and even theme parks. But according to historian Dr Chris Evans, of the University of Glamorgan, cable theft is no new trend.
June 8, 2011 | Yorkshire Post
A man who suffered horrific injuries when he was hit by a 22,000 volt electric shock has warned others of the dangers of stealing copper cabling. James Sorby, 22, was so badly burnt his daughter was unable to recognise his face after he was injured when he tried to steal cabling from an electricity sub-station in a disused post office sorting room.
March 19, 2008
With Chinese market fueling demand, thieves target signal wire, piping in homes, and even bronze statues.
GazetteLive – Middlesbrough,UK
Earlier this month, CE Electric UK announced that it had invested £2m on improving security at substations as a response to the rising rate of copper theft.
August 3, 2019 | Harare24.com
Courtesy harare24.com
Residents of Burnside suburb in Bulawayo woke up to a strange sight overhead: a dead man suspended on ZESA electricity cables.
The unidentified man is suspected to be a copper cables thief electrocuted after power was restored unexpectedly on Thursday night. His body was not discovered until sunrise.
Theft of copper cables – already a perennial problem in Zimbabwe – is very high during load shedding which sometimes lasts up to 18 hours daily.
The Bulawayo Fire Brigade and ZESA engineers worked for almost an hour to bring the man’s charred remains to the ground in a dignified way.
Ross Johnson of the Burnside Neighbourhood Watch Committee said: “I got a call at around 6:15AM from one of the residents and I rushed to the scene. I called the police and Fire Brigade to alert them about the incident.”
Kwanele Khanye, ZESA’s senior client service officer, said the man was already dead when their engineers arrived at the scene, his life snuffed out instantly by the cables which each carry 11 kilovolts. Full Story
A Zimbabwe copper thief was electrocuted by a 66,000 volt power line along Airport Road just out of Bulawayo on Aug. 21, 2014. (Courtesy News24zim.com)
August 22, 2014 | News24zim.com
A suspected copper cable thief was electrocuted by a 66,000 volt power line along Airport Road just out of Bulawayo on August 21, 2014. The incident happened about 10km from the city in the early hours of the morning. Police have yet to identify the man who was reportedly fried to a crisp by the 66KV line that Zesa technicians said had the capacity to provide electricity for the whole of Bulawayo.
People gathered at the scene told Chronicle the suspected cable thief’s partners in crime fled, leaving his body behind. They said farmers in surrounding plots were facing challenges of unscheduled power cuts due to prevalent cable theft.
“The man’s body was a blackened stump that kept disintegrating as police tried to put it into their metal coffin. It is possible that if they do not handle it properly, it will be dust by the time they get it to the morgue,” said Moses Moyo.
What a surprise
All rampant theft comes back to money. There has to be some scrapyard or scrapyards within an hour, maybe two, where they are selling the goods at. Bust the scrapyard, cut off the money supply and the copper thefts stop. That happened here and it was astonishing how fast those thefts stopped. However, burglaries are more rampant as a result and the theft of firearms and jewelry has increased. You can cut off one market, but those disposed to commit crimes will revert to other thefts. And don’t think it’s to provide for families, it’s mostly to feed whatever addiction they may have.
My next door neighbor and another local criminal were caught about 5 weeks ago by a Bartholomew County, Indiana deputy stealing copper from a farmer’s irrigation system. They were held 48 hours and released. They have not been charged. And the …………..goes on.
STOP COPPER THEFT INSTALL A PRODUCT CALLED COPPERWATCHER
STOP COPPER THEFT___ install devices like the CopperWatcher
It is very alarming that the stealing of AC units is very rampant all over the country. The same is true in other parts of the world. As responsible owners, we must do our best to protect our units from this very unlawful act.
Thank you for your comment, and you are absolutely right. Just two days ago, the Aston Park Health Care Center in West Asheville (NC) reported that outages causes by copper thieves were no longer just nuisances, but matters of safety. What’s unfortunate is that all too often, the thieves are only “caught” per se (stopped for good) when identified post mortem. Homeowners really do need to take a proactive stance to defend both property and lives. All best, Jody