Posted on 01/08/2026 2:51:09 AM PST by Libloather
An apparently homeless thief was electrocuted to death while trying to steal copper wiring from a California construction site — as power was knocked out to 2,500 homes, reports said.
The unidentified man was killed Sunday in a vacant strip mall that’s in the process of being demolished, with witnesses saying they heard a loud explosion at around 2 p.m. before electricity went out for several hours, police told CBS News.
The explosion is believed to be a transformer that blew up, knocking out power for several hours, Pomona police said.
One neighbor rushed to the scene where a woman begged him for help.
“She just kept saying, ‘Help us,’ and I was like, ‘What am I supposed to do?,'” Mykil Walker told NBC News.
A construction worker at the scene said it wasn’t the first time someone tried to nab copper from the demolition site.
“Obviously, we kick them out for security reasons and safety reasons,” Frederico Velarde told CBS. “They just keep coming back.:
The would-be thief was apparently part of a larger crew of transients that were living on the property and who had been warned about the dangers of tampering with the live wires, Velarde said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I’m going to resist making snide comments like that. I just don’t have the capacity.
I guess tased,shocked,fried,zapped,electrified,ect. are paraphrases?
I have friends who have been electrocuted and revived.
One was in a coma for a month and lost all childhood memories.
They can claim they survived electrocution.
No need to make excuses coming out of the gate.
Lol
Watts up with these dumb ham and egg thieves? Peeps should know better
I love these types of stories.
This sort of thing is why Johannesburg no longer has electricity (other than a few private diesel generators).
A homeless man?
Not anymore.
But has to be a common sense electricity ban.
Is it worse than drowning to death?
LOL he was charged alright!
“Hey! Do you smell hair burning?”
Elocution should mean death by bloviation or propaganda.
Nice to know resuscitation is a possibility for the electrocuted though!
-6’ in a pauper’s grave?
Oh! Hate that smell.
Count this guy out when it comes to corpse handling technician work/training.
Would rather Learn To Code than be asked to handle dead crispy critters.
Threads like this keep me grounded
To be clear - since the author is not - homeless do not steal copper wire from structures & poles.
Drug addicts steal copper.
Ah, grounded then.
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