LYDENBURG – Live power cables were recently stolen at the corner of De Villiers and Viljoen streets.
According to Mr Stefan de Meyer, he was awoken in the early hours of Wednesday morning by his dog’s barking. “I immediately knew something was wrong, and as I ran through the house I heard a loud bang and the power went off.” At that point his mother-in-law shouted that there was someone in their yard.
De Meyer and a neighbour who was also awakened by the loud sound of the cable cut ran outside in search of the culprits. “There were sparks everywhere. The live cables were lying on the ground. I contacted the police and municipality and asked them to at least secure the area where the cables were lying.”
No one showed.. De Meyer and his neighbour tried to chase after the culprits, but they were long gone with their loot. The backdoor to his house was also open and his Toyota Fortuner’s keys were missing. “The keys are all that is missing,” he told the paper.
When the newspaper got to the scene the following morning, TCM had shown up, seven hours after the incident. There was a severe threat of electric shock to anyone outside the premises should they have touch something connected to the main earthing terminal such as an external water tap.
This is not the first time cables in town were stolen. The copper inside these cables makes for easy money as it is sold as scrap metal.
These dangerous acts not only have the potential to cause serious injury but also result in the interuption of electricity supply to homes and businesses.
It defies belief that people would put their lives on the line by interfering with thousands of volts of electricity in order to steal small amounts of copper with a minimal scrap-metal value.
