Apparent copper thief gets severe shock

[Wingnut]

By JESSICA VESS
KVUE News 08:57 PM CST on Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Witnesses describe how a copper thief caused a major power outage in East Austin Wednesday afternoon. Over 7,000 people were without electricity for more than two hours, and authorities say the thief was air lifted to the hospital with severe electrical burns over his entire body.

The man was inside the Kingsbury substation. 138,000 volts flow through that substation. There are only 10 substations that large in the entire city. It's fenced in and the gates are locked. Warning signs are posted all around it indicating the threat of a severe electric shock from the equipment could kill someone.

Wednesday afternoon Austin Energy officials say it appears that the man cut through the fence in several spots and then went inside, apparently attempting to cut out copper wire that connects the station to the ground.

“I heard something pop and everything like that and I came from the creek,” said witness Jesse Hernandez.

When Hernandez came up he saw a man still stuck inside the fence of the sub-station. The man was engulfed in flames, 100% of his body was burned.

“I was telling him to stop and roll around in the grass but he was already burnt up,” said Hernandez.

Others nearby rushed out too after the loud pops. The electric shock that caught the man on fire also cut off power to 7,300 homes. Most people wanted to see what caused the noise, but nobody expected to see a man on fire.

“It was scary because like we heard those two big breakers pop and we went outside and we just saw him back there running like crazy. His whole clothes were on fire. You could see the flames on him. After all we just seen back there and his clothes, I mean his skin was just coming off,” said witness Ricardo Rodriguez.

The man was taken by STAR flight to Brackenridge Hospital. He was then transported to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He has burns over his full body and is in extremely critical condition. Austin Energy officials estimate he was shocked with 80,000 volts of electricity.

Austin Energy crews inspected the substation and found multiple equipment grounds missing. Those wires are there so that a power surge caused by lightening or failure will flow into the ground rather than into the equipment. Crews also noticed that the surge may have damaged the equipment too. Crews had to pull new wires and had power restored in about two hours.

Austin energy officials say they've seen an increase in copper thefts at substations like the one on Kingsbury as well as power poles and transmission towers. In South Texas a man died trying to remove copper wiring from similar equipment. It's still unclear what this man's condition is or what charges he may face. Austin Energy says it is increasing surveillance around its substations.

[RDR]

No sympathy here. I have a great dislike for liars and thieves.

[okieduc104]

That pore dope probably felt what I would call "Hell on earth" .

[Ken in NJ]

At $3.00 a pound for # 1 scrap copper wire .. The crack heads are going nuts all over the country.

Pretty soon I am going to buy an armored car to transport my wire for jobs.

[HydroHarold]

Well better that than whackin' some old lady in the head for her pocketbook... Every once in a while The Great Spirit hits a home run.

[Ken in NJ]

Want to see the effects of high scrap metal prices ?? Take a ride through or even near Camden NJ .. Aluminum storm doors all stolen, siding ripped off of houses while the owner is working, selling crack or stealing a storm door, rails on bridges and overpasses stolen, not a copper transformer ground wire left on any power pole for MILES.

Someone stole "overnight" about 200 yards of 6' high aluminum chain-link fence along the NJ Turnpike a few weeks ago by Newark NJ .. must have been an organized band of crack heads with a big truck .. that they stole of course ...

[Mark / Ohio]

AC units, catalytic converters, and ground wire from utility poles are going missing during the night here along with other plumbing and electrical. They even caught a women at a local store filling her baby's stroller with copper fittings.

[bontai Joe]

I feel sorry about the 7300 homes that lost their power. The nitwit got what he earned. Nature's way of attempting to clean up the gene pool?

[Team_Green]

Whos money is going to " heal" him.... This kind of stuff really burns my shorts (no pun intended),,,,,,,,,,

[Ingersoll444]

Originally Posted by bontai Joe

I feel sorry about the 7300 homes that lost their power. The nitwit got what he earned. Nature's way of attempting to clean up the gene pool?

LOL!!! Gotta keep that filter running!!!!!!!

[silver hair deere]

guess who will pay to make him well , pay for his defense , and listen why johnny had such a poor child hood , plus some lawer will proceed to sue the electric company for something ,

[DYT4000]

Sounds like they just need to electrify the fences...

[Edward]

Shocking news!

[Steve (Magnolia, TX)]

Strikes entirely too close to home.

The idiots inbred cousins (or somebody, anyway) have stolen about 100 yards of phone trunk line, from off of the poles in front of my house, twice now, in about a 6 week period. About 3AM on a Friday. Me and my neighbor are each about 100 yards off of the road, so these idiots keep quiet and we don't know any different... until the phone company is camped out for the next day and a half splicing in a new piece of cable...


BTW...

AT&T is offering a $3,000 reward for the capture of these idiots... I'm going hunting...

[Edward]

Originally Posted by Steve (Magnolia, TX)

AT&T is offering a $3,000 reward for the capture of these idiots... I'm going hunting...

Sleep well at night, let modern technology do the work for you