A 51 yr old Pa man was found badly burned and hanging from a high power transmision line after some hunters heard him screaming for help. Scattered on the ground were the tools he was using in his attempted copper theft. The wire he started working on was hot. ROTFLMAO . Can't fix stupid

SHOCKING !!!!!

Garry-

Interesting, I had to look it up for more info. Turns out it happen not too far from me, PA's "Slate Belt" starts an hour north of me.

Man stealing copper shocked and found hanging by hunters.

By

Tony Rhodin | For lehighvalleylive.com

A man stealing stored wire high up on a power stanchion in Plainfield Township suffered a severe shock and burns when a live wire arced through him, throwing him from his perch about 50 feet up, police report.

The man had secured himself to the tower, so he dropped 20 or 30 feet, then swung and struck the structure before hanging in the air until his screams were heard by hunters, Slate Belt Regional police Chief Jonathon Hoadley told lehighvalleylive.com on Friday morning. It’s not clear how long the man was up there before being found, Hoadley added.

The rescue attempt was dispatched just before 5:45 a.m. to the 300 block of West Eighth Street, which Hoadley said is very near the border with Bushkill Township.

Once a power company shut off electricity to the line -- and that apparently was a process of getting the right utility to the site -- township firefighters were able to bring the man down with their ladder truck, Hoadley said.

The man, who is in his 40s, was badly burned as the electricity surged through him, Hoadley said, expressing surprise the man survived.

“He’s going to have quite a battle” to recover, Hoadley said.

The man was talking on his way to the ambulance, Hoadley said. He claimed he was deer spotting, not stealing, the chief added.

The man was after wire that is stored on the tower in case work needs to be done on existing lines, Hoadley said. It was the second tower the man had hit, the chief added. The man had insulated tools with him and those were recovered by police, Hoadley said.

Criminal charges will be filed against the man, Hoadley said.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Hoadley said of the injuries and the circumstances.

Years back two men climbed the same tower to watch July Fourth fireworks and a wire arced, throwing them to the ground, Hoadley said. The men were hurt but survived, Hoadley said.

To add insult to injury:

Burned man caught stealing wire now facing criminal charges

By

Sarah Cassi | For lehighvalleylive.com

An injured man who had to be rescued after cutting a live wire on a power line tower in the Slate Belt is now facing criminal charges in connection with the incident.

On Friday, the 51-year-old man from Wind Gap was charged with felony attempted theft, as well as misdemeanor counts of possession of an instrument of a crime and criminal mischief, according to court records.

He was released on his recognizance and a preliminary hearing on the charges is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 20. An attorney has not yet entered an appearance in the case.

In the early morning of Nov. 4, Slate Belt Regional Police said they were called after hunters heard screaming and found a man hanging from a power tower in the 300 block of West Eighth Street in Plainfield Township, near the border with Bushkill Township.

Police said the man was stealing stored wire and had secured himself to the tower during the heist. The man cut one end of a large copper wire that was live and the electricity arced through him, giving the man severe shock and burns, and throwing him from his perch, police previously said.

Because he was attached to the tower, the man dropped about 20 or 30 feet and was left hanging above the ground, authorities said.

Hunters nearby heard his screaming, but police said it was not clear how long the suspect was there before being found.

Township firefighters were able to bring the man down with their ladder truck and he was taken to a local hospital.

The man reportedly told police he was deer spotting, but police said they found insulated tools with him and a large copper wire that was partially cut.

He is probably "cooked" inside almost like a microwave. Might of rattled his brain to thinking this stuff hurts!?

Hmmm... not the brightest bulb

He was for a second

Yep, just for a "short " time.

Zim

A few years ago when copper was making highs, there was an old man and woman and boy in his 30's that was cutting down all the copper on old abandon places. Some old places still left the electric on for hot wires or water pumps. The boy got fried and the old man and woman put him in their freezer for a few weeks. The law started back tracking who was selling copper wire and unravelled the trail down to the old man and finally found the boy in the freezer. They figured the old people couldn't let it be known he got killed stealing, or who knows what could be the reasoning for putting him in the freezer.

The county south of here caught a guy filling up an open 5 gal bucket out of a farmers anhydrous tank with no protective equipment of any kind.

Years ago they were building a power plant 15 miles south of were I live. They had the transmission lines up but the plant wasn't finished. One bright fellow thought he would make it big in scrap copper. Someone found him at the bottom of the tower. The power company was using the lines for transmission even though the plant wasn't finished. Surprisingly he lived through it to stand trial.

The funny thing is, most power lines I’ve seen, are steel wire that have been copper coated. Used to see a lot of that kind of wire along the railroad tracks, years ago. Been lots of that stuff hauled to the scrap yards to try and sell the “copper”!

Aren't transmission and distribution lines aluminum? Copper would be way too heavy and expensive.

The key word is old when copper was cheap. Even the old crank phones used transmission lines out of solid copper.
As of late they have been cutting the meter poles with a chainsaw and stealing the copper out of those and just leave the aluminum entrance cable, which used to be copper too. Had a neighbor a couple miles away that had theirs cut while kids was alone watching tv in the daytime.

I found a bunch of that behind the barn on our place from previous owner.
I hauled it to the scrap place and was a little confused when the guy said it was not copper

I sold it for scrap iron

No one said you had to be very smart to be a crook.

The "HOODS" lost quite a few lads after they energized the power lines for the light rail system here, they got used to stealng the wire during construction, and didn't pay attention to when they started up service!

Copper is supposed to go up again.

Couple years ago one of our stations was hit…..actually pretty common. Cut the grounds along the fence, grounds for switches n stuff, until they cut the neutral connecting the green monster (66kv step down to 7.2kv transformer) to the ground mat under the station. Burnt cutters laying on the ground. RCMP bring out the dog to search the bush for a body n check the local hospitals. He was caught. Another guy was found frozen to death with no hands, trying to claw at the station fence to get out.

Usually they’re aluminum with a steel support inside. ACSR or similar. Might be copper bonds running down. We usually run aluminum down to the last 6’ then into the ground with copper. Contact with transmission voltage is normally unforgiving. Phil (guy at work) had 500kv flash over the hot stick and he’s ok. New name is half a mil Phil….hahaha.