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Copper wire thieves cause power pole to blow up, affect well pump
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Posted on Nov 27 2006
Copper wire thieves caused a power pole to blow up and burn in Chalan Kanoa on Friday. Wire theft also affected a water well pump in Dandan on the same day.
Department of Public Safety acting spokesman Sgt. Thomas A. Blas Jr. said yesterday that a residential area in the vicinity of the former Fish Mart in Chalan Kanoa experienced a power outage when a power pole blew up and burned Friday morning.
Blas said police learned that when a CUC crew responded to the scene they discovered that a ground wire connected to the power pole had been dug out and cut off from the pole.
CUC determined that the missing ground wire, which is coated, triggered the explosion and burning of the power pole.
Blas said residents got back their electricity after CUC repaired the power lines and the ground wire.
No one was injured in the incident.
In the second case, DPS received a call of a theft incident involving electrical wires at Dandan Airport Road’s football field Friday at 2:54pm.
Blas said police learned that three power lines from the well pump of the CUC field treatment station 105 to the power pole had been cut off and stolen.
The suspect or suspects stole about 100 feet of power lines.
CUC crew last checked and secured the treatment station on Thursday at 8am.
Blas appealed to anyone who has information about the suspects in the two cases to call the DPS Criminal Investigation Bureau at 664-9045 or Crime Stoppers Hotline at 234-7272.
Last Tuesday, copper wire thieves cut off the power lines from the CUC’s pole at a newly constructed house of Alvin Palacios Iglesias.
On Nov. 17, copper wire thieves struck at a farmhouse belonging to Pacific Medical Center owner Dr. Fahd Al Alou along Airport Road. The suspects stole the drop line for the power lines from CUC pole over to the farmhouse’s weather head.
A few days before, unidentified person or persons reportedly stole a copper wire measuring about 30 to 50 feet at the Commonwealth Health Center’s Bureau of Environmental Health Office in Navy Hill.
A veteran police investigator told Saipan Tribune that copper wire theft cases are also happening now in some areas in the U.S. mainland, Hawaii, and Philippines.
