Deaths are result of copper-theft attempts

July 9, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va.

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.

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 Monday in Boone County. 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.

Moye said AEP has found thieves using trucks to pull down wire, climbing equipment, tree stands designed for hunting, even climbing spikes used by power company linemen.

“With that increase in that kind of activity comes the fatalities,” Moye said. “It is a very dangerous thing.”

Evidence from theft scenes shows thieves are getting injured as well, including one Monday who was hospitalized. “I mean these people were burned badly from contact with live electrical wires,” Moye said.

Copper theft has dogged AEP since approximately 2006, when prices for the soft metal began soaring. In just the past year, thieves stole about 100 miles of power lines from AEP. The thefts cost the company approximately $1 million a year, Moye said.

AEP has worked with police, offered rewards and used cheaper copper-coated wire, but now has formed a crew solely to replace stolen lines.

“The activity has switched from where a lot of it used to be people just stealing from substations to now we’re having people out on our distribution lines stealing copper wire there,” Moye said. “Just miles of it disappear.”