It’s important when going for a Darwin Award to complete the job. You can’t win if you’re still breathing. Apparently, a Los Angeles copper thief didn’t understand the rules of entry. A man, described as being in his 20s, attempted to steal copper from a live Edison vault, according to authorities. At about 2 am in the morning a neighbor heard a man screaming from within the local power substation. The witness said the man was literally on fire and screaming in agony.
Copper Thief Goes for Darwin Award
Officials said that the suspect was in “extremely grave” condition and they believe, based on where he was and the damage he received, that he was burned by 33,000 volts of electricity. In fact, witnesses say he was burned so badly that there was no way for him to be identified.
One witness who approached the scene ran back to his home to get a fire extinguisher. Another passerby called 911. Since the suspect had jumped the fence to get into the substation, the gate was still locked. There wasn’t a way for anyone to gain access readily to render aid. Eventually, the suspect began to roll around and the fire was put out.
As a result of this stunt, the local power company, Southern California Edison, said that roughly 14,000 customers lost power for at least half a day. For some reason, likely pity, the burned man has not yet been charged with a crime. We expect that to change very soon.
We wouldn’t be so callous were it not for the fact that the would-be copper thief jumped the fence of a power substation in order to steal copper. Getting badly burned is what we in the industry refer to as “natural consequences of a bad choice”. While we wouldn’t wish this on our worst enemy, it’s also hard to sympathize too much. Likely, the suspect probably sues the state for not posting warning signs about the danger of stealing copper from live high voltage power lines.
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