Man wanted for stealing copper wiring from NC power stations
MORGANTON, NC (CNN) — Investigators in North Carolina are searching for a man they say broke into power substations to steal copper wiring.
He allegedly caused $40,000 in damage. Police shared video of the suspect with bolt cutters trying to steal the copper wiring used to ground equipment.
Brooks Kirby is the electrical services director in Morganton. He says power could have been knocked out and the suspect killed — all over a few hundred bucks of stolen copper.
“It’s very, very dangerous to do so. It can cause an outage besides themselves get killed,” Kirby said. “It can cause power loses to hospitals, homes, factories and restaurants.”
Police say hours after the first break-in, the thief — who has a mohawk haircut — broke into another Duke substation nearby.
Duke Energy crews were making repairs there Friday afternoon.
“Thieves are a lot like electricity; they will follow the path of least resistance. And in this case here he found a point to force entry. Really, really gambling with his own life and his own safety,” Morganton Public Safety Chief Jason Whisnant said.
Officers say they’ve identified the suspect as Terry Pittman and have warrants for his arrest.
He’ll face felony charges of cutting property to obtain copper wiring.
