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Copper Theft and Electrocutions

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ATSman

ATSman

ATSman
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Occupation
Electrical Engineer/ Electrical Testing & Controls
It has been awhile since I have heard or read about a major copper theft. I found this article in my Safety Training archives.
There seems to be a lot of talk about arc flash but not a lot about electrocutions and what high energy power can do.
I will have to caution readers it is pretty graphic and not for the faint of heart. I think it is important and I am posting it since it may save somebody's life.
 

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X

xformer

Senior Member
Location
Dallas, Tx
Occupation
Master Electrician
ATSman said:
It has been awhile since I have heard or read about a major copper theft. I found this article in my Safety Training archives.
There seems to be a lot of talk about arc flash but not a lot about electrocutions and what high energy power can do.
I will have to caution readers it is pretty graphic and not for the faint of heart. I think it is important and I am posting it since it may save somebody's life.
Click to expand...
:cry:
 
H

Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
To me it looks like he was trying to steal the ground copper off the transformer.
That and regulators will get you killed quick.

Maybe he should have learned to read the signs posted everywhere in a substation.
Either that or got a real job and quit stealing copper.

Too late now.

We found one about like that about 20 years ago.
Believe it or not, the family sued us!
They lost, but still. The absurdity…
 
Fred B

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
We've had some that didn't end in death but just a big surprise. A string of copper theft to the west of me. Well at least some of it was copper. Had several new service installation that when POCO went to connect they call the inspection office why was the inspector passing service installation without ground rods and conductors. Fortunately there was pictures showing the original installation. Someone was going thru the effort to pull up the "copper" ground rods and cut the cable and steal it all. Imagine the thief's surprise whe he was told that big copper rod was not copper but just clad.
 
gadfly56

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
ATSman said:
It has been awhile since I have heard or read about a major copper theft. I found this article in my Safety Training archives.
There seems to be a lot of talk about arc flash but not a lot about electrocutions and what high energy power can do.
I will have to caution readers it is pretty graphic and not for the faint of heart. I think it is important and I am posting it since it may save somebody's life.
Click to expand...
You were right, that's gruesome. Our HR girl would probably freak if we tried to use that in training.
 
T

tthh

Senior Member
Location
Denver
Occupation
Retired Engineer
I remember back to shop class in high school seeing some safety videos. One video in particular, it must have been put out by Caterpillar or similar, and it showed people working on heavy earth moving equipment and how you needed to block things before you work on them. It showed proper blocking and then someone who didn't and the hydraulic line leaking and you didn't see all the gruesome details, but you got the idea. I recall seeing another with someone locking out an electrical panel and then someone not locking it out and then you see the alternative scene with someone flipping a breaker back on while someone's working on the circuit.
 
4x4dually

4x4dually

Senior Member
Location
Stillwater, OK
Occupation
Electrical Engineer/ Ex-Electrician
Not moved one bit.....if that happened on every theft.....there wouldn't be any more theft. Call me callous.
 
H

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
In Georgia, there was a crew going around pulling out services with an all wheel drive dually. The stores had been closed, but services were still live. They would open the transformer, cut it off at the stabs, pull it out without even disconnecting it from the gear. Sometimes it came loose with out damaging the gear, but most of the time, not so lucky. They hit the same store three times in a two year period. That city had such a problem with theft, the local contractors would pull the service in, get it inspected, and poco connected in the same day. I’ve even seen them go into an open transformer cage, cut loose and pull out the closed distribution center services! Either they knew what they were doing, or just lucky!
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Occupation
EC
hillbilly1 said:
In Georgia, there was a crew going around pulling out services with an all wheel drive dually. The stores had been closed, but services were still live. They would open the transformer, cut it off at the stabs, pull it out without even disconnecting it from the gear. Sometimes it came loose with out damaging the gear, but most of the time, not so lucky. They hit the same store three times in a two year period. That city had such a problem with theft, the local contractors would pull the service in, get it inspected, and poco connected in the same day. I’ve even seen them go into an open transformer cage, cut loose and pull out the closed distribution center services! Either they knew what they were doing, or just lucky!
Click to expand...
With some internet training your luck maybe will be a little higher.
 
W

wwhitney

Senior Member
Location
Berkeley, CA
Occupation
Retired
Hv&Lv said:
Yeah, I saw that. That was stupid also.
I guess now we can sue GM because a driver got behind the wheel and ran us over…
Click to expand...
No, the analogy would be suing GM if their marketing encourages you to get behind the wheel and run you over. That was the basis of Remington's legal liability.

Cheers, Wayne
 
gadfly56

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
wwhitney said:
No, the analogy would be suing GM if their marketing encourages you to get behind the wheel and run you over. That was the basis of Remington's legal liability.

Cheers, Wayne
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure that nothing in Remington's marketing material encouraged anyone to go hunting other humans.
 
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