Copper wire theft earns 90-day sentence

A 30-year-old man from Freetown has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after RCMP found more than 100 kilograms of stolen copper wire in the back of his pickup truck.

Crown prosecutors said it's amazing the person who stole the copper wasn't electrocuted.

The wire was taken in June 2011 from a high voltage Maritime Electric substation on the Rattenbury Road. The ground wire was part of the station's safety system. When the substation was hit by lightning shortly after the theft, power was knocked out to 2,500 homes and caused $58,000 worth of damage.

Thirty-year-old Jeffery David Warren pleaded guilty to one count of possession of stolen property in Supreme Court in Charlottetown Monday. In exchange for the guilty plea, two chargesfor break and enter and mischief were stayed.

The court heard Warren was arrested when RCMP found the wire and a pair of wire cutters in the back of his truck at a gas station in Kinkora. Police submitted evidence that matched damage at the substation to the wire cutters.

Crown prosecutor Lisa Goulden told court, repair crews are put in danger when they have to repair damage from copper theft.

Justice John Mitchell sentenced Warren to 90 days in Summerside jail, to be served on weekends.