Cops: Lost couple cuts chain to enter nuclear plant property

WTOP News (Washington DC) ^ | 29 May 2016 | AP

[COBOL2Java]

DELTA, Pa. (AP) — A couple who got lost in Pennsylvania while driving to New York entered the property of a nuclear plant by cutting a chain at a gate, apparently in a quest to get back on the right road, authorities said.

The Chesapeake, Virginia, couple were driving from Baltimore on Friday night when they got onto an access road at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, owned by Exelon. The driver told police he didn’t see two “No trespassing” signs when he cut the chain on the gate, The York Daily Record (http://bit.ly/27XVuF5) reported.

Exelon spokeswoman Krista Merkel said the couple never posed a threat to the plant and security was monitoring them the entire time they were on plant property.

“It seemed they inadvertently made it to our property and were trying to find their way back out,” Merkel said. “They thought the only way they could get back was to cut the fence.”

Police initially said, after consulting with security staff, that the man and woman appeared to have made it to “a highly security sensitive area where radioactive material is transferred from the main power plant. If the couple had gone inside a nearby outbuilding, the plant would have been placed on lockdown and there was a “possibility of lethal force being used,” authorities said in court documents.

[BobL]

Testing the system...

[johniegrad]

I know that if I’m ever traveling in an area with nuclear power plants, I always take bolt cutters along in case I have to cut any security chains. Always!

[P-Marlowe]

No names. I suspect one of them was named Mohammed.

[JBW1949]

Why are their names not printed in the story????

Could it be that he is Ahmed and she is Nazra????

[JBW1949]

Great minds think alike.........

[Lazamataz]

Why are their names not printed in the story????

You know damned well why.

[Chode]

the chain WAS the no trespassing sign you moron

[ClearCase_guy]

he didn’t see two “No trespassing” signs when he cut the chain on the gate

Uh huh.

I didn't catch any names. Mohammad and Aila, by any chance?

[JBW1949]

Yep............

[HollyB]

Lol. Funny.

[virgil]

If I came upon a chain up area, I think I would have turned around, not break the chain.

[Lazamataz]

Ok, I was wrong: Timothy Lee Stewart, 28, drove his red 1998 Dodge Stratus....His girlfriend, Jenilee Jean Simpson, 33, ....

[Lazamataz]

Source for my retraction

[visualops]

Follow the links in the article to the "real" article with more facts.

A Chesapeake, Va. couple who got lost in Pennsylvania on Friday night drove up to the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station where they cut a chain at a fenced-in area, according to police. Timothy Lee Stewart, 28, drove his red 1998 Dodge Stratus to an access road off of Lay Road where he came upon a "secured fenced-in area," according to charging documents.
That's where police said he cut a chain to a gate.
His girlfriend, Jenilee Jean Simpson, 33, told police she had been asleep when she woke up and saw Stewart cutting the lock off of a fence, documents state. She then claimed she went back to sleep.

[johniegrad]

"Jenilee, ham me dose boat cutters!"

[FredZarguna]

More likely radical enviro-whackjobs:

Better story at original source: http://www.ydr.com/story/news/crime/2016/05/29/lost-couple-cut-lock-but-sought-security-plant/85135630/

[Mark17]

No names. I suspect one of them was named Mohammed.

Yes, I was kind of wondering the same thing. He was lost, but was able to find a nuclear facility? Riiiiiight.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Of course they carry bolt cutters. Isn't the Scout Motto "Be Prepared"?

[P-Marlowe]

Anti-Nuke activists perhaps. Bernie’s buddies.