Apparent copper thief gets severe shock

http://www.khou.com/news/state/stories/khou080228_jj_coppertheft.73ab0b1.html ^

[Titan Magroyne]

I’m glad you’re the first to say it, LOL. It occurred to me to wonder about the water content of certain parts of a man’s anatomy. Enough to blow off? to vaporize?

Welcome to FR, BTW.

[LukeL]

First of all the low pitched hum, is your first sign of danger, second it sounds like he tried to remove the ground from the substation. His organs must have been cooked.

[pandoraou812]

Well I figured that but if I was burned I would want prayers.

[tubebender]

I’ll bet you have a story or two about copper thieves...

[Orange1998]

Event the electricians get caught. My electrician was telling me a story of one of he crew members who would lick he two fingers and touch the wire to see if its live. Then one day he was confronted with power that was not so forgiving and died.

[hosepipe]

This and the largest copper and gold mine ever discovered in Alaska is being hamstrug from being mined by the tree huggers.. This mine could supply much of the world with copper.. not to speak of the gold, moly and other metals..

There is more to find to... These thieves could find a COPPER DEPOSIT and retire but they'd rather STEAL IT.. DOH!..

[Petronski]

The thief is probably worried to death about how he’s going to pay for his hospital care.

One hundred percent of his body was burned.

[sapper1975]

This was going on all over Baghdad in 2003. When a neighborhood had their power shut off as part of a load shedding plan the thieves would immediately start hacking away at the lines. If you were still hacking when the power came back on, zap!

[RichInOC]

ZOT!

[EEDUDE]

“That may be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Wow.”

We’ve actually got several billboards in my area warning thieves that that might get fried.

I guess it’s happening a lot.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Off topic, but VOLTS DON’T FLOW! (”138,000 volts flow through that substation”). Amps flow. Volts are a potential. Ignorant public skewled “journalist.”

[Skibane]

Anyone else reminded of Thomas Rivera’s book/film “And The Earth Did Not Swallow Him” (suicide by substation)?

[dadgum]

AMPS kill.

[TigersEye]

You just had to remind me of that thread. ;^)

[SouthTexas]

We lost one and part of another, 50 ton condenser off a job last year. Took them off a roof so they could rework their bases. Three days and one was only an oil spot on the ground and the other damaged.

Cops got them though and charged them with theft of copper at the replacement cost of the new ones.

[Sloth]

Katrina refugee expanding his new business?

[Chode]

good for him... lets hope this was a learning experience.

[boop]

I guess it’s a stupid question, but who is buying the copper? I mean doesn’t the dealer get suspicious when some dodgy looking guy shows up with 3 transformers that say “City of Houston”?

[mamelukesabre]

That kind of elecrical shock burns off everything that sticks out.

fingers, toes, ears, nose, lips, genitals, eyelids, chin, etc. Sometimes hands and feet and ends of arms and legs.

[Revolting cat!]

I guess it’s a stupid question, but who is buying the copper?

Undercover coppers, that's who!