SPOKANE-- Spokane County Sheriff's deputies say a suspected thief was severely burned while trying to steal copper wire from a substation. Deputies say a 43-year-old Spokane Valley man spent the night in his truck, woke up and then stole copper wire from a substation near Rockford, Washington. After being shocked, he made it down the road to Allen Lewis’ house for help. Lewis says around 11:30 am Friday a man knocked on his door. Lewis’ wife answered and sent the stranger to her husband who was working in his shop. Lewis told the man he was lucky to be alive. Lewis says the man told him his name was Scott. Scott claimed his van caught on fire. Lewis could see Scott’s hands were severely burned. Lewis says Scott wasn’t speaking coherent sentences, but did say he was from Spokane Valley. Lewis says Scott’s clothes were tattered and his face was ashen. Deputies say the stranger was actually burned while trying to take copper from a nearby electrical substation. Lewis says EMTs from Rockford were at his house within minutes. The EMT cut off the man’s clothes and discovered the electricity had gone out the side of his body. They immediately called for life flight. Medstar landed there and picked the man up to treat him for his burns.

Submitted on 02/11/2011

Submitted by: Jason Orosco
Reference: Krem 2 news 02/11/11 http://www.krem.com/news/crime/Suspect-coper-thief-severly-burned-at-substation

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Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
While I think this sort of thing has become way too common I think that Darwin is still collecting stories involving cooked copper crooks. Thanks, Jason.

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
Crispy copper copping crooks!

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