Just found May 31 headline in local (for that area) newspaper, Rocky Mount
Telegram, "Two men charged with 282 counts of theft of Progress Energy
wires." Unable to read article, 'cause don't have a subscription to the
paper. 'Course, wires may not have been copper, but they WERE part of power
distribution system. Now I'm wondering why anybody would go to all of that
trouble to steal steel. More desperate/stupid than I first thought?
Wilton
----- Original Message -----
From: "WILTON" <wilt...@nc.rr.com>
To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 2:45 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] OT - copper thieves
The TV cable/phone cable(s) -easily recognized - are strung underneath the
one that was taken.
BIL said that stolen cable was replaced with a galvanized steel cable by
the power co. (Progress Energy).
Wilton
----- Original Message -----
From: "Allan Streib" <str...@cs.indiana.edu>
To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] OT - copper thieves
Often cable TV and telephone share roadside poles with power lines. The
power lines are on top, the cable/phone lower down on the pole. Could
have been a cable or phone line. Power lines are not copper.
Allan
On Tue, Jun 5, 2012, at 02:06 PM, WILTON wrote:
Last Sunday afternoon, I visited my sister and her husband in rural,
eastern NC; not a densely-populated area but not very
sparsely-populated, either - houses across road from each other and many
less than quarter mile apart, etc. Sitting on their porch facing the
main highway, BIL told me about watching a truck pull over by the road
in front of the house several days before; 2 men got out carrying a long
pole; one of the men reached way up overhead with the pole under the
power distribution line running along beside the road and clipped the
lower, single wire/cable near one of the power poles, walked to the next
pole and clipped same wire near that pole; other man rolled up the
length of wire and put it on the truck; both men proceeded along the
road/distribution line for several minutes while sister and BIL watched.
Power at the house flickered briefly when they made the first cut, but
then continued in a, seemingly, normal manner. Sister and BIL thought
they were powe
r!
co. employees removing old wire in prep for installing new, but both
thought it strange that they would just clip between poles and leave.
Well, coupla days later, they read in paper about capture of the
thieves.
Few days later, real power co. employees came along replacing the stolen
cable; during the process, one of the linemen was electrocuted/killed
while lowering his lift bucket.
Question: What is the function of the lower, single cable that the
thieves were taking? Is it a grounding conductor to enhance safety of
the distribution system? I've noticed that grounding conductors running
down sides of many of the power distribution poles for several blocks
near my house have been cut and taken from down at the ground and up as
high as a man can comfortably reach. When I first saw such several
years ago and called power co. to report it, they'd come out and replace
the missing conductor immediately; 'called to report same several weeks
ago; no response from power co. yet.
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To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
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_______________________________________
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For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
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