Copper thefts in Breathitt County are moving into dangerous territory.
Someone allegedly broke into the Haddix substation over the weekend to steal copper and tools.
“They only got away with about 200 ft. of copper wiring, but it was bigger tools, not hand tools,” said Detective Gary Sandlin.
The suspect got in the station by crawling through a hole under the fence.
Officials said the thieves put their lives at risk the moment they crossed the fence.
“It's where all your high voltage comes from that's distributed out to all of your grids. It's very dangerous,” said Sandlin.
“A lot of people don't realize what they're getting close to. We have to be trained every day on all of this; so it's very dangerous for someone to just come into these stations," said New River Electric Foreman Matt Trail.
Yet, their efforts could prove to be less than worth it.
“Anything above ground is iron clad so it's not worth anything. It's steel so they're really not stealing anything worth anything,” said Trail.
Proving that, the risk is much more than the potential payoff.
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