Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
An apparent copper wire thief caused about $500 damage in cutting the power cable to the city?s water reservoirs above Turbyne Road.
On July 13, the thief cut a hole in the chain link fence surrounding the reservoirs and cut the power cable. After one failure the thief returned again on July 17.
?It was very dangerous what they were doing,? Police Chief Bob Burford said. ?Because of the type of currents they are, they don?t have the same fuse protections the suspects may have been expecting.?
The cable is connected to part of Public Works? telemetry equipment, used to track water levels, Burford said. Although it shut down the Public Works telemetry systems, ?our radio equipment (one of two sites) located nearby is on a separate, protected, uninterrupted system, and it was not interrupted.?
While Pacific Crest, a Sweet Home electrical company, made repairs to the power system, power to the Police Department?s radio equipment was temporarily turned off and operated on emergency battery power, Burford said.
?My guess is when they cut it, they probably got a pretty startling indication they were dealing with live lines and may have expected a breaker or fuse to kick in,? Burford said.
On the morning of July 17, apparently to make cutting the cable safe, the thief removed the meter from the pole, Burford said. This set off an alarm, and police responded immediately.
As the officer arrived, he could hear another vehicle moving away on a different road, Burford said.
This time, the power was cut to both the reservoir and dispatch equipment, Burford said. The radio equipment shifted seemlessly to emergency power.
“Because this is a municipal water supply, these incidents will be reported as part of Homeland Security reporting,” Burford said.
A rash of copper thefts earlier this year has slacked off, Burford said. Some of the city?s known wire and metal thieves have been in jail, but have been released within the last 10 days, he said.