Pacific Power offers $3,000 reward to help catch wire thieves
February 02, 2010
LINCOLN CITY, Ore. – Pacific Power, working with Lincoln County law enforcement officials, is offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to the arrest, prosecution and conviction of individuals responsible for a series of wire thefts that have occurred since mid-November.
“This is a serious problem and we are taking aggressive action to stop it,” said Bill Eaquinto, vice president of operations for Pacific Power. “These thefts put our crews at risk as they go about their work on the local power grid, add a financial burden to the system and inconvenience our customer. In addition, the thieves themselves are in mortal danger as they perform these criminal acts.”
Pacific Power and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office are asking the public to help in any way they can to put a halt to this criminal activity and prosecute those responsible to the fullest extent of the law.
“This may be a case where a person doesn’t realize they are witnessing a theft,” said Lincoln County Sheriff Dennis Dotson. “The thefts are occurring at night in remote areas east of Lincoln City where power lines cross fields and forested areas. The thefts are being done by individuals with experience in climbing poles and possessing at least a basic knowledge of how an electrical grid works. In addition, the thefts are usually associated with local power outages.”
Sheriff Dotson and Pacific Power are asking residents to report any incidents where they see individuals climbing poles or carrying coiled wire when there are no Pacific Power vehicles in the vicinity. Except during local outages, Pacific Power crews would not be working at night. Official Pacific Power crews will be using company-marked vehicles, wearing company gear and surrounding any work vehicles with orange cones. At this time, the Lincoln City district is not employing any contract crews to do work.
If residents see any suspicious activity around power poles, do not confront these individuals, but call 911. If someone has knowledge of past thefts, please call the sheriff’s office at (541) 265-4277, ext. 2764.
A key part of the effort involves deploying high tech surveillance equipment into the area in order to catch criminals in the act and obtain vehicle identification. In addition, wire has been specially marked for identification.
Strong new laws to stem the rise in wire theft went into effect Jan. 1 in Oregon. The laws concentrate on making it very difficult for thieves to sell their haul to dealers. With new teeth for apprehension and prosecution, law enforcement is redoubling its efforts to find dealers who may have received this stolen property. Salvage dealers are NOT eligible for the reward as they already have a legal obligation to report any suspicious material brought to their yard.