ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Wire Stolen

I went to the job today and noticed the power wasn't on. Thinking maybe the main was opened I went downstairs to check it out. Everything checked out fine. I went out side to find that some one had cut through the aluminum triplex used to temp in the service. I'm shocked that someone acually had the guts to do this. They must of got 30 feet, probally about 5 dollars worth at the scrapyard.

At my wife's place someone cut 2 locks off the electricians storage barn and stole a truckload of wire, under the nose of the crack security staff.

Or was the crack under the nose of the security staff ?
That stuff confuses me

Was the temp live, and if so what was it running? I'm just wanting to know how dumb these people were.

Don't know if it's true (haven't asked the owner about it) but rumor says an underground 500+ foot feeder run of 500MCM was pulled back out of the conduit and stolen the night after it was pulled in about two years ago. Bet they wish they had waited to scrap it.

We've had the cables to our portable substation stolen and reels of copper taken from our warehouse yards. Our G&T has actually had copper grounds stolen off of energized power banks in the substations.
Can't wait until that guy steals a neutral off an energized bank.

Yes the wire was live. It was ran to the meter because they were demoing the porch that the old SEU was ran on. Not only that the wire looked like it was cut with a sawsall or some other primitive tool. They also let the live ends just hanging about 3 feet from the ground.

One local shop I once worked for would hold the copper wire for a job in the shop until the job was ready to install it. Didn't really help tho - someone broke into the shop warehouse the night before a big wire delivery and drove the truck (loaded with the copper wire) right thru the warehouse door, the yard fence, and kept on a-going. They got the truck back a week or so later - the perps left it parked behind a row of commercial units and someone finally called the contractor to see if they would come move their truck outta the way.

Radar