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Copper Thieves Rob Detroit Freeways Of Light
CBS Detroit
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - The Michigan Department of Transportation says one-fifth of the lights along freeways in Metro Detroit aren’t working — and copper thieves are mainly to blame.
MDOT spokesman Rob Morosi said roughly 20 percent of the lights on poles and beneath overpasses on freeways in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and St. Clair counties are dark.
“We are responsible for about 5,500 light poles and also about 5,000 individual lights that are installed beneath overpasses,” Morosi told The Detroit News. “Right now we’re estimating 1,100 outages to those poles for a number of reasons.”
The main reason for many of the outages, according to Morosi, is copper thieves – who are stripping metal from the transformer cabinets.
“It’s not like the copper thieves are running out onto the freeway and stealing copper from the poles to sell at scrap yards,” Morosi said. “Instead they are attacking the transformer cabinets, many of which are actually located on the service drives.”



bobdog
February 16th, 2013
Light bad. Morlock no like light.
Dadof3
February 16th, 2013
IIRC, a few years back the power company pulled out light poles – wiring included – in large areas of Detroit due to unpaid bills.
How long will it be until that proto-jungle has enough vines to swing through it?
Anonymous
February 16th, 2013
If only Detroit weren’t overrun by racist whites
Ornery1
February 16th, 2013
Hello Mogadishu.
Tim
February 16th, 2013
Too much trouble for the cops to visit the scrapyards?
Claudia
February 16th, 2013
How long before we get a satellite photo of nighttime in Michigan with the southeast corner all dark?
Maudie N Mandeville
February 16th, 2013
Choice: ‘a 34-year-old man was electrocuted at Putnam and Lawton, near I-96, while attempting to steal copper wire from a transformer. Police said the man was attempting to remove the copper from inside the pole when he was electrocuted by a live wire, causing him to fall off his ladder and be left hanging. A DTE crew cut power to the pole and used a cherry picker to bring down the man’s body.’
Photoshop: Welcome to Detroit
Photoshop: Don’t let the sun go down on you in Detroit
Photoshop: Darwin Award Winner
the aardvark
February 16th, 2013
When the last of the rats have fled Detroit would someone please turn off the lights if there are any left that haven’t been stolen or the copper sold to scrap yards. You would think anyone with copper wire selling it to a scrapyard would be suspicious these days!
Tim
February 16th, 2013
Maudie,
I wonder why they wasted time and money to recover the body. Should have left it as a warning to others.
judgeroybean
February 16th, 2013
They’re not too bright.
Unruly Refugee
February 16th, 2013
It’s because of these inconsiderate free-shit grabbers that you now have to show ID at a scrap yard and you are then made a part of their permanent records. They pull up A/C and gas lines in Arkansas; one new home owner here had his house catch on fire because of stolen gas lines.
Edith McCrotch
February 16th, 2013
The other residents of Deroit are mad….mad because they didn’t think of it first.
scr_north
February 16th, 2013
Another couple of years and you’ll ads for those adventure tours into wild Detroit.
Blink
February 16th, 2013
Locally every few months someone gets fried trying to steal copper wire that is still connected to high voltage. Instant feedback that what they were doing was wrong.
Dadof3
February 16th, 2013
Took a picture of a copper thief’s car across the street from me in 2010 and the police said the plate did not belong to that car. sheeeayt!
Short of going Rambo on him he was not going to be caught.
At least he has not come back to this block since then.
Copper Thieves Plunge Detroit Freeways into Darkness | Grumpy Opinions
February 17th, 2013
[...] Motor City is making a comeback. It just has to do its driving in the dark. [...]
Copper Thieves Plunge Detroit Freeways into Darkness | Tony Johnson
February 17th, 2013
[...] Motor City is making a comeback. It just has to do its driving in the dark. [...]