PROBATION???
Major public safety hazard not to say the cost to,repair and replace.
How many of them are illegal? Taking bets.
IOW, they are getting off free & clear. They are migrant neighbors, you see. And they need to be able to vote.
Minnesota Man? Eh Tha Blay was a name on the Mayflower Compact, wasn't it?
/s
Minnesota Judge: "Of course not!"
All good “Irish” names. 😀
Ridiculous!
A total waste of public defender’s and the court’s time & taxpayer paid services.
These scoundrels sold the copper for 12k, how much $ damage did they do to the structures?
I’d say full restitution, and two years in prison would be a good start. Not a slap on the hand.
Took out stop lights? Heck, I say give them a medal. I reckon most stop lights are unnecessary. stop sign would work better in lots of instances.
This reminds me of a time in my life that I will never forget...
The Early 90’s... I was pushing a crew that did safeties on the billboards you see on the side of the freeways. 4-5 guys, 2 pick up trucks and 1 - 100’ to 150’ boom truck. Life was good for 3+ years!! ...Until the new hire...
This guy, didnt have the know how(I realized it, being the foreman, the third day after this guy started) but he was one of those with the tremendous gift to gab... was everyone’s friend within a week, and the boss, his sister and mom who worked in the office, absolutely loved him!! and as predicted, within a month, he came after my job.
Long story short, after a few altercations, the boss had me in his office and let me go... I said, “Kurt, this guy is bad news and you’re going to regret it. Thanks for the years of employment...” said by to the mom and the weeping sister and left...
A year later I ran into the sister at a bar in town, and she told me I was absolutely right about that guy! 6 months after I left, Kurt got a call from the police that his guys were arrested and all his trucks were impounded. They were caught in an abandoned building stripping all the copper out of it!!
I could not freaking believe it!! ...and apparently, he never recovered from the loss of contract(loss of confidence with Gannett) and ended up closing his doors.
that trauma scar will live forever in the anals of SR’s Lore...
From another article.—”Copper wire thefts have cost St. Paul millions to repair in recent years, darkening streets and concerning residents.”.
Probation and 20 hours community service for a crew that caused in excess of $210,000 damage and they get sent home.
A few years ago, there were a couple of meth heads stealing copper out of empty house in the next town over.
Unlucky for the thieves the landowner drove by.
They never heard him pull in, but when he looked in their van, it was full of copper wire. Van was riding really low apparently.
Not sure how, but three of the van’s tires were flattened, the key was broken off in the ignition. Thieves also left a wad of money in the van console - heard that ended up missing (about $3,000).
Landowner then called the sheriff’s office to report a break-in and copper theft in process.
Thieves got several years in state prison. Last I heard one died of an OD, the other moved out of state and later died. Both from good families in the area.
When the internet was newish, there were multiple pix readily available of electrocuted copper thieves on the ground beneath a power pole, totally fried head to toe. The good old days.
When I was a lad, a neighbor kid’s family had a unique euphemism for human excrement...
“Eh eh plop”
Sounds like one of the gang of “newcomers”.
Klay received more than $12,000 from stealing the copper,
= = =
Maybe the copper got $12K, but I’ll estimate the replacement cost, materials and labor was 100X.
Not including problems/costs with systems being disabled till fixed, if ever.
Oh, sometimes the fix is go to solar street lights. More labor and material costs (tax payer alert).