Eight people are accused in a month long copper scrapping spree at 13 electric substations that police say put workers’ lives in jeopardy and resulted in a combined theft and damage loss of more than $175,000.
A joint police task force created to crack the copper caper described the suspects — all between 20 and 30 years old — as part of a “loosely” affiliated theft ring that committed 20 thefts at PECO substations between early November and mid-December.
The suspects were arraigned Tuesday before Bristol Township District Judge Robert Wagner Jr. on varying counts of burglary, criminal trespass, theft, receiving stolen property, criminal use of a communication device, risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief, possessing an instrument of crime and recklessly endangering another.
Those arrested are: Bristol Township residents Jason Pallis, 29; William Bruck Jr., 23; Michael Gerretz, 23; David Hoffner III, 25; Christopher Weldon, 20; and Taylor Homan, 21; Falls resident Jamie Lynn Brown, 30; and Middletown resident William Brent Leone, 25.
All the suspects, except Bruck, were released on $500,000 unsecured bail. Bruck remains in Bucks County prison on $400,000 bail. He’s been there been since his Dec. 13 arrest after getting caught while allegedly trying to steal copper at the Emilie substation in Bristol Township.
Pallis also faces charges in a separate case, copper thefts at a Middletown housing construction site in November.
The arrests culminated an investigation led by Bucks County detectives and police departments in Bensalem, Bristol Township, Falls, Middletown and Newtown Township, where the grounding copper wire thefts occurred.
Grounding copper is used to ensure that voltage remains at safe levels under all operating conditions at electric substations, according to police. Damaging or removing one or more of the groundings increases the rise of potential failure of the system that would be visually undetectable.
Removing even one of the grounding cables can place a person in danger if the exterior security fence is touched, police said. Grounding wire is about 1 inch thick, about 2 pounds per foot and is buried at various lengths underground.
The task force says its investigation found that the alleged ring members arranged thefts with each other during daytime calls. A driver often would leave the area during a theft and get a call when the others were ready to be picked up, police said.
Emilie Road in Bristol Township and the Woodbourne station in Middletown each were hit three times during the scrapping theft spree, police said.
The thieves used bolt cutters to cut holes in exterior security fences around the substations to provide not only a way in, but a way out in the event they were chased by police, according to an affidavit of probable cause. The ring members would pick areas that were secluded or hidden from view to enter the substations, police said.
The exact dates of the thefts, though, is unclear because the substations are not manned, monitored or inspected each day, police said.
Once inside the substations, the suspects would cut the copper grounding wire at the metal poles or fencing and pull up as much wire from under the ground as they could, then cut the other end, police said. In most incidents, at least $1,000 worth of copper was taken, but damage to each substation was at least twice as costly.
A theft at the Steel-Tap substation in Falls netted Bruck, Pallis and Brown $4,250 worth of copper, but the damage and repair costs were $16,375, police said.
Police say that Bruck taught several of the other suspects what he believed was a safe way to steal copper cable.
Gerretz was the first of the suspects to be arrested, when in November police said they caught him at the Emilie Road substation. There, nearly $3,000 in copper was stolen in one theft, and the damage and repair costs were nearly $12,000, police said. Pallis and Brown accompanied Gerretz in the theft, but escaped, police added.
Due to its scrap value, PECO Energy has taken additional steps in painting its ground wiring purple to make it easily identifiable. Also the utility has notified area scrap yards that the copper wiring is painted purple and should be considered stolen property.
But, according to the task force investigation, the suspects took all the purple-painted copper to the same Philadelphia scrap yard, which does not require identification and doesn’t ask questions about the source of the copper, police said.
The average scrap value for this type of copper is about $3 per pound, according to court documents.
Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia
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