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Man Charged With Cutting Copper Wires From Power Poles
March 24, 2012
An Escambia County man was arrested after a copper-cutting crime spree early Friday morning.
A citizen reported watching as Michael Wade McConnell cut ground wires from a power pole. The citizen confronted him, gave chase and called the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office about 4 a.m.
Deputies discovered that copper ground wires from 25 separate power poles had been cut and removed from the Ferry Pass area. They also found McConnell was in possession of cutting tools and copper wiring.
McConnell was arrested and charged with 13 first degree felony counts of theft of copper with interruption of services and 13 counts of criminal mischief. McConnell’s total bond was set at $663,000.
Charges are pending in the remaining dozen incidents.
Comments
13 Responses to “Man Charged With Cutting Copper Wires From Power Poles”
While I agree that Mexico prisons would be awful (the original posters point) there is *NOT* less crime in Mexico these days! My friends there can not travel the highways at night and they don’t bother to report crimes anymore because the local police have been mostly corrupted! My friend saw a man living on the roof of houses (common walls) in his neighborhood. The police came and took him away. A half an hour he was back on the roof. He was a “falcon”, a look out for the drug people. Now they know who reported them.
As bad as crime gets here and as twisted the legal system can get in some cases, we have it very GOOD here in the USA compared to Mexico and many other countries. I am grateful to have the oppoprtunity to live here.
REGARDING:
“- – - Mexico. there is a lot less crime there ”
Actually, there’s more crime in Mexico and worse, based on kidnappings and beheadings and such-like
Murder rate of
4.8 per hundred thousand in USA
18 per hundred thousand in Mexico (more or less)
From:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_970.html#crime
“CRIME: Crime in Mexico continues to occur at a high rate and can often be violent. Street crime, ranging from pick pocketing to armed robbery, is a serious problem in most major cities. The low rates of apprehension and conviction of criminals contribute to Mexico’s high crime rate. The homicide rates in parts of Mexico have risen sharply in recent years, driven largely by violence associated with transnational criminal organizations.”
David for lower crime rates
Big B you are right about Mexico.there is a lot less crime there because of the consequences.It used to be that if you were caught stealing in Mexico it cost you several fingers! But the US is so afraid of violating our civil rights that it has gone over board with it.
I’ve never been for out-sourcing jobs, but I do believe if we would out source prison time to Mexico it would save money and stop some of the repeat offenders. It’s time our law makers and officials got tough on domestic terrorist, that all thieves and thugs are.
So sad, some folks never learn..what an embarrassment he must be to his family.
Big T: They must have kept the money from the robbery since they were able to bail themselves out. I am afraid the “Stand your Ground” law will soon be overturned and then the law abiding citizen will have no defense left
Ok whatthehay it still dont add up! Cut one pice of copper $60,000 Knock a store manager in the head $21,000 this dude could have been killed or not know were he is anymore! Last time i was in DT if you hit anyone in the head it’s deadly force hummm! What i wont to know is did someone hit them 2 punks in there head and take the bag back from them? Mr. store manager get you a gun and “Stand Your Ground” it’s the law…
The court considers him a recidivist, which seems reasonable considering how much of the court’s time he has taken up over the years
One interesting intervention involved driving illegally while carrying drugs and drug paraphernalia and hidden weapons.
I do wish people would give up such life-styles.
David for repentance of evil
Everett, if you will check, the copper thief has a total bond of $663,000 , he got a smaller bond for each count $60,000 for each theft and then its added together.
I agree with you Everett. Where is the logic in that? A person on person crime that uses a weapon gets a whopping $21.000. A meth head cutting the copper grounding wire get over a half of million dollar bond. Good old escambia county, a great place to live.
So proud of this fellow citizen who put their own self at risk to nab this criminal.
DUMBEST!!! Do you know how many deaths ou could have caused. Those poor electricians could have been electrocuted. All because you want to “get high”!
This guy gets $663,000 bond for stealing copper while two guys from Century knock a grocery store manager in the head for the store’s deposit and are out on a $21,000 bond.
Imagine that.