While it was unconfirmed whether the two incidents were connected, City Power spokesman Louis Pieterse said they probably were because the substations are close to each other.

He said the exceedingly high voltage that flows through the cable meant the thief would have died even before he touched it.

“The protective layers were gone. You only have to be close to such high electricity voltage, you don’t even have to touch it. It jumps at you.”

The attempted theft caused the Roodepoort substation to catch fire. Firefighters from the Johannesburg Emergency Management Services were called out to the scene.

The outage badly affected peak-hour traffic.

Submitted on 10/02/2012

Submitted by: Jorn Hass
Reference: September 18 2012 http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/electrocuted-cable-thief-causes-outage-1.1385391

Copyright © 2012 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
Yet another crispy copper crook for Darwin's archives...

James said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
They will NEVER learn...every time one mook dies, three more spring up to take his place...!

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