Canadian man trying to steal copper electrocuted

OAK BAY, New Brunswick – A 32-year-old St. Stephen man was electrocuted over the weekend after he broke into a New Brunswick Power Co. substation on the Tower Hill Road and tried to cut a heavy-gauge copper ground wire.

“We were called just before midnight on Saturday evening,” Sgt. Greg MacAvoy of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Tuesday. “Two males cut through the chain-link fence and were on a mission to abscond with some of the heavy copper wire found in the electrical substation.”

Copper prices, which have nearly doubled in the past year to about $3.30 a pound, have made the metal attractive to criminals, according to law enforcement officials.

The RCMP has not yet released the electrocuted man’s name but according to MacAvoy, the incident happened just before midnight Saturday. Oak Bay is about seven miles north of Calais, Maine.

A second man, who remained at the scene, told police what had happened. “Unfortunately, one of the fellas cut into one [wire] that was energized and he was electrocuted,” the sergeant said. MacAvoy said ambulance attendants were unable to revive the man.

Canadian law prohibits the release of the name of the second man until he appears in Provincial Court.

A huge fence surrounds the substation, and there are warning signs posted telling people to stay out.

NB Power, according to its Web site, “owns and operates the transmission system used to carry electricity from generating stations and other supply interfaces over long distances to the consumer distribution network, large industrial customers and export markets.” The system is made up of terminals and switchyards and substations. The company provides service to more than 363,000 customers. The power giant provides electricity not only to New Brunswick, but also Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Maine.

Duff Boyd, director of health, safety and security for NB Power Holding Co. said Tuesday that a substation transforms high voltage into lower voltage to be used by homes and businesses. He said the Oak Bay substation was one of the company’s larger facilities. “There’s definitely a lot of voltage there,” he said.

The company does some major advertising to warn people about the dangers at substations. “As far as John Q. Public, if you happen to be in one of these substations, you wouldn’t know the difference between an energized conductor that could kill you or a nonenergized piece of structural steel,” he said. “So the hazards once inside are very real.”

Although Boyd would not comment on the incident in Oak Bay because it is still under investigation, he did say the problem was not new.

“It is a North American problem,” he said. “[The theft of copper] has been escalating over the past few years along with just about every other base metal you can find.”

The sergeant agreed. MacAvoy said the theft of copper wire has been a problem all over New Brunswick. The RCMP recently had a case where thieves tried to make off with copper wire from a tungsten mine. “There has been quite a jump in copper prices for someone wanting to make a quick buck,” the sergeant said.

And it’s not just a Canadian problem. Copper right now is a hot commodity on both sides of the border. Earlier this month burglars made off with $30,000 worth of coiled copper wiring in Dexter, Maine. Last year, eight people were arrested in connection of the theft of $400,000 worth of copper wire from Lincoln to Island Falls.

Copper thieves take the metal to other parts of the state, where it fetches a high price.