Teen faces charges in copper caper

Nevada, Mo. -- A local teen appeared in court Friday for a pre-trial conference, defending his not guilty plea to 8 counts of tampering with a utility meter, all Class A misdemeanors. Brandon Fisher, the defendant's attorney, simply requested there be a new pre-trial date, which was granted by judge Neal Quitno and set for Jan. 3.

On Sept. 28 a report came in to the Vernon County Sheriff's Office claiming there had been a theft of copper ground lines from utility poles in the Deerfield area. According to a report by Vernon County Sheriff's Deputy John Randall, another deputy met with Gary Ashby, Aquila's operation supervisor at the scene, and found a number of copper lines missing.

Upon contacting Young Iron and Metal, Berry discovered that earlier the same morning, a young man had been in to sell a load of copper. Upon viewing the copper wire at Young's, Ashby informed the deputy that Aquila's name is not printed on the line; however, he claimed that some of the hardware still attached to it is used solely by Aquila. He also stated that some of the poles damaged and robbed belonged to Barton County Electric Co-op.

On Oct. 1, Randall met with Rick Barton of Barton County Electric to view the utility poles belonging to the co-op, that had been stolen from as well. Barton advised authorities that the copper found at Young's was the same type used by Barton County Electric.

Troy Young of Young Iron identified a 17-year-old male from Nevada, from a 2006 Nevada High School year book photo, alleging he was the one who sold them the line. Young told authorities that the teen had been in on several other occasions -- usually accompanied by another individual -- but that morning he was alone.

According to the report, copper ground wire was stolen from 15 poles, and was believed by Ashby to have been stripped by someone who cut the staples holding it in place, then ripped it from the poles with a vehicle. There were allegedly no marks or tire tracks near the incident locations.

The line sold to Young's totaled about 37 pounds and by current prices would have been worth around $74. According to a Young employee the going rate for copper on Sept. 28 would have been even higher. A total of approximately 305 feet of line was taken from the poles, and it is not known at this time if all the copper was sold to Young's that morning.

Ashby reported that it would take $614. 96 to repair the damage done to Aquila's poles, while Barton reported damages of about $1,600.

In light of the increase in copper thefts, Ashby said, "It's very dangerous to steal copper this way. It's dangerous for the persons stealing it and for the customers of Aquila."

Barton said, "This equipment being stolen, whether it's copper or another device, is put in place for the safety of our employees as well as the customers. If a young child were to walk by a line with a wire dangling, if it were to cross one of the distribution lines, it could very dangerous."